Being a DJ-in-training isn’t always a good thing, especially when you’re mentored by at least two different experienced DJs. Tommy could attest to this because for the past week, he’s been to five different bars and hanging out with different sets of strangers every night. He didn’t do drugs, but his ‘friends’ definitely did. And when he heard they were meeting a customer in the woods, he made the mistake of following them there. He hadn’t even gone halfway there when he heard his friends yelling, running as they scattered in different directions. It doesn’t take a genius to peace it together: his friends had just gotten themselves in a buy-and-bust operation.
"Hey you!” Called a booming voice behind him. A cop has seen him. They wouldn’t buy his innocent passer-by story now. So he ran. It’s only 6 in the evening and he’s already being chased by the cops. He ran till he reached the road. Paused to catch his breath, then ran again till he saw a car that has stopped on a red light. Impulsively and desperately, he grabbed the handle, hopped into the passenger seat, and then yelled, “Drive!”
Levi was in Washington. With Natalie. For a moment, he laid still in her bedroom, on her bed, with his eyes shut. His hands folded against his abdomen, the man was trying to sort his thoughts. There was still so much he had to learn about her, still so much which had to be done, with a short amount of time. She wanted a child. And the chance of that were growing slimmer by the day. Fear was an understatement of how the man felt. It was much more than that, really. Fear couldn’t describe the overbearing feeling of creating another life, of being in charge of that said life, of being a parent. Swallowing hard, he felt his eyes flutter open, as if it were the lids of his eyes that were suppressing the millions of thoughts from escaping his clouded mind.
They were here for her family. And as much as he wanted to, there was no place for him to hang around and be about them. He remembered the feeling he had when he’d lost his parents, and though Natalie and he weren’t exactly the same, he wanted to respect whatever it was she was feeling. But being trapped in a room that belonged to her when she was a young teenager made him feel slightly claustrophobic. It’d been getting worse, actually. And before he knew it, he was sifting through the books she had in the corner of her bedroom. Every book placed neatly against the separate shelves were titles well known, especially by the man over looking them.
So when Levi’s eyes scanned passed the faded titles and to an untitled, worn out bind, his curiosity got the best of him. First thing to come to mind was that the paperback fold must have been lost, or thrown out, and that the book was another best seller. However, as soon as he turned the cover, he realized he’d gotten ahold of Natalie’s diary.
It must have been an hour. Deep inside of him, Levi knew this was wrong- that this was some sort of invasion of privacy. The lawyer in him immediately told him to return it, to not even read the first page. But the concerned, soon to be father wanted to continue. There was still so much of her he didn’t know – and her diary would fill in most of the blanks. His vulnerable side had won. Because at this point, he felt his hands grip the covers – out of sadness, out of anger.
Swallowing hard, he hadn’t even heard the steps outside of Natalie’s door, didn’t hear the usual loud creak of its hinges. He remained standing over her desk, flipping through the pages, the tips of his fingers tracing the every line. He was lost, completely immersed, completely gone and consumed in the stories the frail diary kept in his hands.
Things were going well for Levi, considering he was in an all new place. Of course, he’d dreamt of perhaps traveling the world and going to many places, but he never thought of actually living anywhere outside of Hale. As a growing young lad, that’s all he knew – the countryside in which he lived. Now that he was out in this huge, broad city – filled with a variety of many different people and things – Levi couldn’t necessarily say it was something he was quite used to after only a couple of weeks.
Luckily enough, he’d managed to get a place near his cousin and a good, old friend. It just had to be by luck that he was surrounded by so many welcoming people, too. One in particular being Natalie Harrison. She, of all the people he’d met thus far, had to be the most remarkable. She was open to conversation, very forward, and humorous. But there was also something about her aesthetic beauty that was more than meets the eye. He felt as if he knew her from some place, but it required him to have been in this city before due to the circumstances. And things just didn’t quite add up.
With those weird feelings aside, Levi was glad she’d agreed to meet him for dinner. Chinese food wasn’t exactly he had in mind for a dinner, but he didn’t mind. Frankly, he was just looking for a means to get to know Natalie more, to see what it was about her that made him so interested and to figure out why it was she looked and felt familiar to him. On arriving with the girl at her favorite Chinese restaurant, he held the door open and flashed her a smile, “After you, mi’lady.”
The pair were seated rather quickly and Levi waited courteously until she was seated to take his own. Eyeing for a minute, still stunned by her familiarity, Levi cleared his throat and chuckled. “Sorry it took me so long to get to you, I still get pretty lost.. All the streets and buildings look nearly identical to me.”
In America, exactly two people had seen her cry: Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s father, and both were for decidedly good reasons. Natalie had had every intention of ensuring it stopped there. Two was more than enough. She didn’t spend all that time outrunning what happened to her while she was still living in London to let it all crumble. She came here because no one knew who she was. She came here because it was a clean slate.
She had no idea, when she fell asleep that night, that she’d be adding a third name to that short list.
Richard’s house was warm. It was clean, much nicer than her apartment - and, most importantly he was in it. Before him, she had a very strict rule: nosleeping over. Spending the night, sure, but sleeping, actually sleeping together, simply was not an option. But there was something about the way he stopped her last time, the way he’d lightly touched her hand and said, “Why don’t you stay over?”, and she suddenly knew that if she went home she wouldn’t even be able to sleep.
This time was different. He didn’t have to ask. She didn’t even make to leave. She was curled into him and wrapped in his arms as if she were made to be there, and it felt warm. And, for some reason, it didn’t frighten her. It should have, but it didn’t.
Natalie didn’t check the weather before she’d gone to his house. The morning had promised her sun, maybe some cloud cover, but there was no storm expected. At most, she thought there might be a drizzle. A drizzle would have been fine.
But when the storm started, her world came crashing down around her. She lost all sense of where she was, who she was with, or what she was doing. The rain is what had woken her senses, but it was the first roll of thunder that snapped through her body and made her aware. She jolted, sitting upright at first, as if trying to remember what was happening - and then there was the flash of lighting that took her breath away.
Natalie flung herself out of the blankets and practically fell out of bed, stumbling desperately through the dark of the room. The only sounds she heard was the rain, the thunder, and in the back of her mind two screams, one short, one prolonged, and the horrible crack of the windows, and the thunder.
The room was pitch black and her hands found the farthest wall. She followed it, hoping beyond hope she’d find a light switch - light, the room needed light - and she didn’t even realize she was already crying, desperately trying to catch her breath as she clawed at the walls. She was tripping over a pair of shoes, her own clothes, and by the time she’d given up searching for the light switch - light, the room needed light, she needed light - she’d sunk to her knees.
Natalie’s stomach lurched as another roll of thunder clapped across the sky, and she wrapped her arms around herself. She wasn’t ready for this, she hadn’t planned for this - she was always ready for a storm, she always made sure she was home, in her apartment, with Elizabeth at her side to braid her hair and watch a movie or listen to music on the noise canceling headphones. But suddenly her entire world was upside down and she couldn’t even fathom her thoughts into coherent sentences, all she could hear was the thunder, the screaming-
A soft touch to her shoulder brought her back and all at once she could hear Richard’s voice. She spun around, her hands flying to her head, clutching at the hair by her temples.
Ever since the date had been set for Natalie to visit, Tom had not been able to sit still once. His thoughts had been focused on nothing but the young woman coming to visit, and today he was so far away in another planet, doing anything was impossible. Well, apart from work. He had to do that, and even in his nervous state he had to work. That was his job. Tom felt a little sorry for everyone around him, because he knew he was terrible company. By the time the evening rolled around, Tom couldn't sit still, couldn't concentrate, couldn't do anything. He'd taken one of the rental cars to the train station, half an hour before her train was set to arrive, and he spent at least twenty minutes pacing through the station. However, once the announcement about her train arrival was voiced, Tom nearly stopped in his tracks. He felt suddenly twice as nervous than Natalie had ever made him feel. She was coming to visit him, and he was going to show her the set and introduce her to everyone, and... well. Things were changing between them. Standing by the platform, far enough away that people could get on and off the train with no trouble, but close enough that Natalie could see him, Tom waited for the blonde to appear. The moment he saw her, Tom's face split into a small grin. She was here. She was here and she was going to be spending time with him. As she walked closer, any words that Tom had quickly dissipated and his mouth dried out. Instead he just help up the little sign he'd made with 'Dormer' written on it, and tried his best not to show his nerves. And then she was there. Right in front of him. And, God, she did look so beautiful. "Hi." That was it, that was all he got out. How eloquent.
Sam was greatly excited to be back working again in something that he seemed very interested in. Days on sets filled with incessant laughter, pranks and jokes which was mostly being a clumsy git and tripping up everywhere. However it was good to have a break from all that work he had been putting in as he wanted this to be a work that was of good quality for everyone also he was starring with Nat who acted so beautifully and with such talent that it motivated you to want to match her and make your performance just as good which is what he had been focusing on doing so he was exhausted.
Sam had called earlier to the Chinese restaurant with his orders and what the lady had requested so it was already to pick up when he was ready. He changed into something suitable and drove down to his favourite restaurant already a ready regular, exchanging pleasantries with the staff before setting off to Nat's place. He arrived with the food being tempted with the smell of the food but resisting to have a cracker but setting out to her door. Sending her a quick text to let her know he had arrived. "Abs have arrived. S. X"
NOTES: A simple need to get cleaned off from a rough night on the field turns to a swim session neither was expecting.
Natalie: Natalie had been itching to step out of her comfort zone for quite some time now. Her fellow Gryffindors were always off causing some sort of mischief, but she was always too cautious to join on in. She liked having boundaries, liked knowing what she could and couldn't do. Even with that, she always found herself a bit envious of how carefree her housemates seemed and wished she could be like that. That's how she found herself standing in front of the entrance to the prefect's bathroom, Lance by her side. Having fancied him for almost the entire previous term, she finally took it upon herself to strike up a conversation with the bright eyed boy, pleasantly surprised by the fact that he seemed slightly receptive to her, although she worried it might just because they had a mutual friend in Lorcan. Either way, there she was, ready to do something she would never normally do. Whispering the password to the statue, of Boris the Bewildered, she took a moment to muster up some more confidence, before turning around to give her partner in crime for the evening a small smile. "C'mon," she said, as she led him to the fourth door to the left of the statue, pushing the door open to reveal the lavish bathroom behind it.
Lance: Lance watched her, his expression calm and collected. Swimming was by far one of his more favorite past times. One of the few reasons he wished he could have access to the prefect bathrooms. Between his behavior and his mouth, there was no way he was becoming a prefect or a Head Boy. So next best shot was Captain. He'd have to prove to Ellias and Professor Torres - somehow - that he was suited to be Captain. That deep inside of him, he had it in him. That was part of his reason for being out on the pitch at night. He was brushing up on some flying moves he had seen and heard about. Some of them not going as well as he planned, but the Ravenclaw found that he had gotten lucky with finding Natalie. Sure, he could have gotten into serious detention, but now he was getting a shot to swim. He couldn't be mad about that and even better, he got out of detention too. Lance followed her, the grin on his expression widening as they entered the bathroom. "Ace," he breathed looking at the massive tub. He pulled his wand out, from seemingly no where and swished it towards the numerous faucets, grinning as suds bubbled up. Lance turned to glance at the Gryffindor, "Ready?"
Natalie: As Lance took it upon himself to fill up the tub, Natalie was doing her best to stop herself from over-thinking the situation. Warning sirens were going off in her head, telling her that this was probably a bad idea, that the amount of trouble she could get in for this wasn't worth it. It was her instinct to worry, an instinct that she was trying extremely hard to suppress for the sake of having a bit of fun. She wanted to be the sort of person who could just throw caution to the wind and make her mind up to do something reckless in a moment's notice. Maybe she'd get there eventually, but first she'd have to take baby steps and tonight was the first of many. "Ready," she echoed, in an attempt to sound completely sure of herself. First there was the matter of getting in the tub. Natalie was painfully embarrassed to admit that she barely had any experience with boys. She'd had a few kisses here and there, but things never seemed to go further than that and she wasn't sure how she would handle it if they did, so the thought of Lance seeing her stripped down to her underwear was absolutely terrifying. "Mind turning around for a second?" she asked, praying that the Ravenclaw didn't think she was some sort of loser for requesting that.
Lance: Instinctively, His eyebrows shot up at her request but he smiled and turned his back. If nothing else, his mother had taught him to be a gentleman. Not that he would openly admit that to anyone, but seeing the girl strip wouldn't be a new concept to him. He paused, thinking of his mother's instances that he be a gentleman. He'd have to hold the door open, pull out chairs and offer up jackets unless he wanted a smack to the back of the head. In his opinion it was just his mother's way to get him to be nice to his little sister. He had been her brother and occasionally her bully, resulting in his smack of the head and having to be civil with her at dinner that night. Pursing his lips, Lance walked towards one of the benches and placed his wand down. He reached down to his shoes and untied them, leaving the socks tucked inside before asking, "You done? You want to jump in before I turn around?"
Natalie: Breathing out a small sigh of relief once his back was turned, Natalie took it upon herself to rid herself of her robes, folding them up neatly and placing them in the corner of her room, leaving her in her relatively modest underwear. It wasn't as if she had expected that she'd end up in this situation tonight, so the underwear she was wearing definitely wasn't the cutest in her collection. She just had to keep telling herself that it was no different than swimming in a bikini, not that she still wouldn't be a bit nervous about Lance seeing her in one of those as well. Instead of answering him, she took a leap, straight into the giant tub, the water splashing as she landed inside. Grinning to herself, glad to have taken the plunge, she called out to the Ravenclaw. "Come on, slowpoke," she teased, "The waters great"
Lance: A chuckle left him at the sound of splashing, he turned to see her head poking out of the water. Grinning a bit, "Yeah, yeah. Don't give me your 'tude." Lance bent down, getting himself ready for a quick sprint to the edge of the tub. "I'd watch out if I were you," was his only warning. His legs pushed him to the bubble filled water and he gave a quick shout, "Cannonball!" Quickly rising to the surface, he shook his hair out, water having been displaced from the tub immensely. "Take notes," he murmured to the other teen just previous to his head dipping in the water, the weight of his clothes pulling at him. He spoke quickly before dunking his head, "Time to get clean." What actually happened was more of a flopping under the water and a swim towards the girl, brushing at the dirt as he went. Emerging from the water with a gasp for air, he stood along the edge silent just before pulling himself out and removing his pants. He tilted his head giving them a shake before moving to place them near his wand. His shirt was placed next to his pants and the teen brushed at his black boxer briefs before walking back to the tub. Lance sent her another smile before walking off the edge and landing in the water again.
Natalie: The Gryffindor gasped as she got splashed as an aftereffect of his cannonball. True, he had given her fair warning, but she was already in the tub and with the size of the impact he had made, there really was no escape. Just as she was about to ask him what he meant by 'take notes,' he dunked underwater, her words falling upon deaf ears. The sight before her was something quite amusing. With his clothes still on, Lance was flopping around rather clumsily underwater. Laughter rang out from her lips as she watched him flop around. He looked absolutely ridiculous, which made her feel sort of better about the whole ordeal. If he could feel comfortable goofing around and making himself look silly, then so could she, or, well, she could try. "I don't think I could take notes on that even if I tried," she said, still laughing a bit when he came up for air, "It was pretty indescribable..." She couldn't help but trail off as she watched him pull himself up out of the tub, almost entranced as she watched him shuck his clothing. She tried her best not to stare, but it was a bit impossible not to take notice of a body like his. Feeling the blush creep back on to her cheeks, she quickly dunked back under the water, coming back up for air a few moments later, shocked when she ended up almost face to face with him. "Hi there," she murmured, her nerves flooding back to her all at once.
Lance: Lance grinned widely, "Hullo." He sunk low in the water, until only his head was above it and swam backwards. "Enjoying yourself Rulebreaker?" his tone was teasing as blew away the massive amounts of bubbles floating around. The Ravenclaw made sure to keep his eyes on her head, sure that she might faint if he let them wander without restraint. Nearly naked and soaking wet, what bloke wouldn't at least peak a glance, but small reminders flagged his thoughts, helping him to keep his eyes up where they should be. "Come swim Natalie. If you're going to be a bad girl, at least make it worth your time." He threw a small wave of water towards her, hovering towards the center of the tub. Trouble making wasn't as common a thing for him, but rule breaking he had no qualms with. Not to say that the teen thought rules were meant to be broken, but he threw away any rule that didn't benefit whatever idea he conjured up. Like now, being out past curfew, persuading a prefect off her rounds, and being in the prefect's bathroom when he wasn't a prefect. Why listen to any of those rules when you could swim in the dead of winter? Especially in water that was at just the right temperature. Knowing that Natalie was of the more shy variety meant that Lance had taken it upon himself to sort of preoccupy his mind in between the silences, but he turned his blue eyes on her expectantly, waiting for her to do something out of her comfort zone. Anything, for that matter; he assumed it was a lot to ask for without saying anything but waited for a few moments nonetheless.
Natalie: "Rulebreaker, huh?" she asked, shaking her head a bit at yet another nickname, "Could I at least be Princess Rulebreaker? I rather liked the whole royal title and it'd be such a shame for me to give it up now." The longer she sat in the tub, the more she felt herself getting comfortable. There was really nothing so bad about this, just as long as the they didn't get caught. "I am swimming. I'm in the water aren't I?" she pouted, "Unless you want to start swimming laps or something, but I wasn't really keyed in to the fact that we'd be training for the Olympics here or something." He hit her with another splash, one she didn't react fast enough to in order to avoid it, and it ended up hitting her right in the face. "You're lucky I'm not one for revenge," she retorted, chuckling softly. With the way he was looking at her, she could tell that he was waiting for her to do something a bit more exciting, daring even. With that thought in mind, she took it upon herself to float on the surface of the water, among the bubbles. She was painfully aware of the fact that her body was pretty much on full display now, but she just kept repeating to herself in her mind that she was pretty much wearing a bikini, so that made it okay. "Floating is worth my time," she sighed contently, just letting herself drift where the water took her.
Lance: "What? No. I give the nicknames out. We're literally testing the waters. Trying to find the one I agree with the most. None work so far. You might be shit out of luck." Lance rolled his eyes at the Gryffindor, curious a bit as to where the daring bravery was in her. "Standing around pouting is not swimming. We could, but I'd win in a heartbeat. I swim every summer. I mean every summer. I love swimming." As if to prove a point, he dove under the water and swam to the opposite end and back. "Vengeance is good. Revenge gets the body moving, the blood pumping. It's a good thing," he sighed softly as she laid out on the water floating harmlessly. "Bloody hell," he murmured another eye rolling following his words. "A log could do that. Are you a log? No." Lance swam towards her, grabbing a handful of bubbles as soon as his feet reached the ground. "Up, up. At least dive once or twice, Get out and do a cannonball. Something," he added as he blew them at her.
Natalie: "I don't know whether to be insulted that you can't find one that fits or flattered that I'm literally just too indescribable for a nickname," Natalie mused, her smile growing a bit in size. "Now, I didn't say we were racing. I just said training. I have no doubt in my mind that you'd beat me and enjoy doing it too. I rather like swimming though too. Used to do it quite a lot as a kid. We'd go to some town pool every summer and I'd just stay in there for hours and hours." Shaking her head as she took in yet another one of his eye rolls, she got up from her floating position, determined to appease whatever it was he wanted out of her. "Fine," she huffed, swimming over to the side of the tub, "You want something? I'll give you something." With that she pulled herself up and out of the tub, standing there for a moment as she thought about how she wanted to approach her jump. With only a small smirk as warning, Natalie stepped back, taking a running leap into the tub, tucking her knees in tightly to her chest to do the perfect cannonball. When she surfaced for air, the grin on her face was practically a mile wide. "Better?" she asked, waiting for the Ravenclaw's approval.
Lance: "Insulted," he said flatly. "Training and racing is like the same word. I would enjoy it. I'd throw it in your face once a week at minimum." His yawned purposely, to exaggerate his point once more. He listened to her huff, smirking as she stood and nearing the edge to be safe. He gestured with his hand, literally waiting to be amazed. He ran a hand through his hair, crossing his arms and silently mocking her with a smirk. He watched, a smirk flashing across her lips before splashing into the water. He wiped at his face, smiling a bit as she surfaced. "Much, we're doing things, we're moving. We're enjoying the water. It's what you do. I mean if I wanted to be bored I would have taken a shower and never offered. Now what, throw some ideas at me. Riding my back is not an option. I have given Mackenzie enough piggyback rides to last me until I'm old." He shuffled through the water casually, flicking bubbles at her every once in a while. "Blow me away Natalie. Bring out your wild side. Get a little crazy or something," he encouraged with another grin.
Natalie: "Rude," she countered, well aware that he was joking, or at least that she was pretty certain he was joking. She still wasn't really sure how to read Lance and gauge his words. For the most part, she assumed him to be a bit on the sarcastic side, but then again, making assumptions was never really a good thing to do. "And that's exactly why we won't be doing that," she explained, shrugging a bit, "I have no desire whatsoever to have you rub it in my face weekly." Mulling over his words for a moment, she tried to think of something that would blow him away so to speak. "Well, that's disappointing," she said, flicking some bubbles his way as she spoke, "I happen to be quite the fan of piggyback rides, but I won't push my luck. Perhaps I'll just coerce you into one another time. Now...hmm...well, we could always do handstands. I'm brilliant at handstands." As to prove her point, she swam towards one of the more shallow parts of the tub, doing a surface dive down into the water, her hands pressed up against the floor, and pushed herself up into a perfect handstand, even pointing her toes to boot.
Lance: "Oops," another grin crossing his lips. To stop himself from rolling his eyes some more, he brought a wet hand up to press against his closed eyes. Numerous answers to her came to his mind and he persevered to stay silent on them, another eye roll filling him. It was funny, but it seemed necessary to add the movement when she spoke.Probably because she had more sass than he realized. "Alright, maybe a day or two and I'll stop." Lance threw her an withered look, "Piggyback rides are currently non-negotiable." He nodded at her next words, watching as she went. "Hey! There we go!" Lance fought through the water a wide smirk on his expression as he extended his arm to her exposed legs and ran a finger up, a devious grin waiting for her when she emerged from the water.
Natalie: Her perfect handstand stance wavered as she felt his finger trail up her leg, offsetting her balance and making her wobble slightly. She moved her hands from their position and pushed herself up off the floor of the tub, surfacing once again, only to be met with a grin from the culprit himself. "And what was that for exactly?" she said, only able to roll her eyes in response to the look on his face. So far, she wasn't regretting the rather reckless decision she made to abandon her rounds. The world of trouble she could be in was far from her mind and she was actually finding herself having fun, something which she was in desperate need of. Sure, she would go to parties and have a drink or two, but she was never one to really let lose, always too scared of making a fool of herself. And yeah, maybe she was making a total fool of herself in front of her crush right now, but in all honesty, she wasn't sure if that was such a bad thing. Especially not if he kept smiling at her the way he was.
Lance: Lance had to keep his snickering under control and he shrugged in response to her. He was more surprised by the fact her response included no blush than anything else, but he remained silent on the subject. "Keeping things light. Ever done a back flip?" The Ravenclaw pulled himself towards her, to push her into deeper water. Deeper water was always safer. "You're gonna have to have a little faith here," he gestured to his laced hands as he knelt down. He was kind of assuming she knew what he meant. Reasonably speaking however, she could easily have no clue. He waited for an answer so he knew whether or not to be explaining the game plan.
Natalie: Her telltale blush creeped back onto her cheeks as Lance pushed her into deeper water. She was painfully aware of the exact spots where his bare skin was brushing against hers and she willed herself to think about literally anything but just how close he was to her. On the outside though, she was hoping she appeared calm, cool, and collected. "Of course. Back in the day my brother and I were pretty ace at these. Or, well, I was. All he had to do was give me something to push off of." A small smile played on her lips at his last statement. "I have faith, I promise," she answered, before mustering enough confidence to place her feet in his hands, letting her hoist him up, and grabbing onto his shoulders to keep herself steady. The heat in her cheeks returned as she pressed up against him. She just hoped she'd make it through this without making herself look like the biggest dork on the face of the planet. "Just tell me when," she called down to him, just biding her time until she was back in the water once more at a safe distance from the Ravenclaw.
Lance: "Good, I used to do these for Kenzie before she spent more time arguing with me than talking and playing." He nodded easily, waiting for the pressure of her weight to press into his hands. "I could easily give you an excuse not to trust me, but I'm playing nice cause you let me swim. His blue eyes flashed across her painted cheeks, a smirk pulling at his lips. "Count of three, I'll give a bounce with each count, sinking lower every number, got it?" Lance paused before starting his countdown. "One, two... three," for moment, it seemed as though it was him and Mackenzie just fooling around for the summer, but as his eyes followed her protectively, he recalled that Mackenzie wouldn't have gone swimming with him in her skivvies. She would rather doing anything else. Lance waited for the Gryffindor's head emerged from the water before relaxing, there had been a few bad occasions where the whole scheme went wrong. "Better than your brother's?" he asked, another smirk covering his features.
Natalie: A small smile tugged at her lips at the mention of his sister. Being in her house, Natalie knew the younger girl sort of well. She was definitely a little spitfire, but she'd seen the way that Lance and her interact and it was sweet to say the least. Maybe she should've been a bit more concerned about the fact that he was doing something that he thought of as almost brotherly with her, but that thought didn't really cross her mind. "What sort of excuse would that be?" she asked, genuinely curious as to what his answer would be. True, she didn't really know the bright-eyed boy well, but they had mutual friends, so she trusted their judgement of him. From what she could sense, albeit being a bit rebellious, Lance truly was a good guy. As he started his countdown, she took it upon herself to take a deep breath, holding it in on the count of three, pushing off his hands and going into the backflip. The whole thing went according to plan. As she came up from the water, she was met with another one of the Ravenclaw's smirks, a look that never failed to make her cheeks heat up. "Not telling," she replied, smiling a bit, "I can't pick favorites, now, can I?"
Lance: More often than not, Lance didn't recognize the way people looked at him when it came to his sister, he was usually too preoccupied with the thought of her when it happened to notice.He may want to smack her upside her head sometimes, but at the end of the day, she was his baby sister and he would do just about anything for her. "I'm not sure your cheeks could handle it really," he joked, his eyebrows popping as he spoke. The ideas that ran through his hand involved things he was sure she'd probably explode from, due to the blood pooling in her face. Seeing that she had no head trauma and even managed to blush and smile as she came up. "Well you could, but you just don't want to. Realistically in most cases, Kenzie would lose a battle of the favorites. At the end of the day I would sooner fight for her than anyone else," he shrugged easily, forgetting the way he was rambling about his sibling.
Natalie: Natalie's blush only deepened when he pointed it out to her. So he had noticed. Usually, this would be about the time where she'd make her excuses and get on going, because she made an utter fool of herself, but right now that wasn't really so feasible. She couldn't just rush off in her underwear. This whole night was about getting over her reservations and starting to take more risks. She'd just be a coward if she ran away now and that was the last thing she wanted to come across as. "Try me," she retorted, her cheeks still burning red, a bit surprised at her own boldness. "It's the same with Danny," she agreed, "He may be the biggest pain in the arse sometimes, but he's also sort of like my best friend. It's just one of those siblings things I guess. They drive you mad, yet you love them anyways."
Lance: His smirk, spread to a chuckle at the dark red the flowered across her features. Maybe she was just not good with blokes, but the idea was thrown away when she thought of how she acted with Lorcan. He tried to recall if he had ever seen her talk with another bloke, but coming up blank, he couldn't be too sure. The idea that she might like him was on the list, but even then it just seemed odd. Why get naked and go for a swim with a bloke you liked unless there was a secondary plan. Lance paused, considering it might be his over thinking but he ho ideas as to how to test his theory. "Try you? You sure?" he asked, surprised at the flair of Gryffindor courage. "Pretty much," he murmured, his eyes staring at her intensely.
Natalie: As his gaze met her own, Natalie thought that maybe this was a mistake. What exactly was she trying to do here? Sure, she had definitely gotten some sort of attention from her crush, but was this really the best way to have gone about it? If she wasn't such a nervous wreck all the time, she could've just gone and struck up a conversation like a normal girl, but no, she had to go way past her comfort level and end up practically naked with the Ravenclaw on the first time they'd ever spent alone together. Caught up in her thoughts for a moment, she almost forgot he was waiting for her answer. Deciding to just shut off her brain for a moment, she nodded in response. "I'm sure," she finally said, the words making her sound a hell of a lot more sure of herself than she actually was.
Lance: Lance pulled himself straight, standing at full height and moved towards her slowly. This would be like a game, to see how far she'd go before it turned out to be too much. The teen found that he liked the idea of that more than he probably should. Games were fun, especially when winning seemed so easy. He walked to her, gently pushing her back with his hand until she was up against the wall of the tub. His hands gripped the edges, trapping her for the most part. He leaned his face down until their noses were practically touching and whispered, "How sure?"
Natalie: Before she could make any sense of what was happening, her back was pressed up against the wall of the tub, Lance's hands on either side of her. He had her cornered and there was nowhere to go. Even if she dunked under water to swim away, which she thought would be a viable option for a moment, his body would still be in her path. There really was no escape and that thought alone terrified. her. "I-um," she started, the words coming out as more of a stammer than anything else, "I don't know." Despite the leaps and bounds she made tonight towards being more bold, when backed up against a wall, she was still the same girl she was before Lance approached her tonight. She was absolutely terrified and she knew it was showing. This wasn't right. Being here wasn't right. No matter how cute or funny she thought the Ravenclaw was, she wasn't this type of girl.
Lance: His expression remained steady, his eyes searching her features as she stammered. Her answer wasn't definitive enough so Lance repeated himself, "How sure?" He leaned his face down, his eyelids lowering as he brushed his lips against her neck. "Not at all? Very sure?" Permission or denial. He was waiting for one of the two responses from her. Either would do, but she had asked and he would provide. Should the issue arise, he would remind her that it was her idea, not his. Despite the humor filling him, it was the truth. He didn't find her pain funny, but rather that she signed herself up for something that she couldn't handle. For all his tendency to give people low expectation levels, he was smart as any other Ravenclaw.
Natalie: The way his lips ghosted against his neck was almost too much for her to handle. Her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest, the sound echoing loudly in her ears, making her wonder if he was close enough to hear it too. Everything was happening too quickly for her to process. She knew she had to make a decision now. There was no turning back. She had gotten herself in this deep and now it was time to either sink or swim. "I-I'm sure," she breathed out, the words falling so quietly from her lips that she wasn't sure if she had actually spoken them out loud or had merely thought them.
Lance: Lance paused his movements, pulling back from her to raise an eyebrow. She wasn't the type - at least, she didn't seem the type. Pulling himself from her, he let out a small chuckle, "Don't force yourself Nat." He dunked his head below the water and shook it out once he surfaced. A tanned hand ran through his wet hair and he nodded his head towards their clothing, "Do you want to continue our swim, or go?" Either would be fine with him, but messing with her wasn't on his schedule again.
Natalie: How could she be so stupid as to think he'd be interested in her? As soon as she gave the go-ahead, literally telling him that it was okay to kiss her, he pulled away, leaving her absolutely mortified. This whole situation was absolutely humiliating and slowly but surely was making her regret doing something so outside her comfort zone in the first place. It was all one huge mistake and now she just wanted to get out. "I think I should probably get back to my rounds," she said hastily, quickly pulling herself up out of the tub, not even bothering to use a drying spell, before pulling her robes back on, "You can get out of here yourself, yeah?" Not even waiting for his answer, she rushed on out of the room, not headed back towards the corridor she had been patrolling, but in the direction of Gryffindor tower. She just wanted to curl up in bed and forget this had ever happened.
Lance: Furrowing his brow in confusion, he watched as she practically ran out the room, his body and now her clothing soaking wet as she went. "I just kind of figured she was lying between her teeth... but alright," he muttered to himself.He considered giving the event more thought, but dropped it instead, figuring thinking about it too much would just confuse him more. A shrug fell off his shoulders and he flopped back into the water, determined the enjoy the rest of his stay before returning to his tower.
The prospect of having work to do again was one that he greatly appreciated at the moment with the things going on in his life right now with the ex Laura so it as great to get busy again. His agent sending the fax for a script that he greatly enjoyed reading that he promptly read the book it was based on - City of Women. Begging them to have him have a chance to work on the film and he seemed to have succeed because he was on the way to a pre-production meeting to things kick started for this project that he was looking forward to doing. Nat being his co-star was going to make this a project that was going to ensue in hilarity and good times on the set every day and he was looking forward to starting.
He got changed into some casual clothes with dark jeans and a blue shirt and a sweater then chucking a coat on before leaving the house. The traffic as usual was heavy in London that it made him later that he would have wanted that he had to sprint down to the room where everyone was waiting for him it seemed. He spotted Nat in the room, waved and went over to stand next to her. "Hey stranger, ignore my tardiness all right." flashing her a dimpled smile in her direction.
