mp | take me out

"Sh—"

Towns scream-whispered half of the profane word before remembering where he was, and what he was doing. He glanced over his shoulder down the corridor that was cloaked in the light of the moon that snuck through the stained glass well above his head. "Shit," The sigh of relief came the moment he realized what he thought he'd heard was, in reality, the rubber of his sneakers atop the stone flooring. He grinned to himself and took a few more cautious steps forward.

"Jesus Christ," He scrambled backward as soon as the warmth of what he could only hope was an actual person ran straight into him.

"Adara?" Towns was, to no surprise, not at all subtle about how he was feeling. Confusion pulled at his every feature from the moment he was able to make out his housemate. It was a shock to see her there, after the explicitly mandated rules of the 'Great Hall slumber party celebration'. He had to admit, he was morbidly curious, hence his own reluctant attendance. "What are you doing?" He whispered, as if he were any less at fault for doing the exact same thing.

On second thought, she wasn't a prefect was she?

His face dropped.

@Adara Perkins

Adara had a complex relationship with rules. On one hand she pretty much loathed the feeling of doing the wrong thing. But in the other, well, her curiosity and fascination with things tended to lure her into tweaking the rules a bit. The view at the astronomy tower was supposed to be brilliant tonight, though, and she wanted to gaze at the stars and get a little quiet reading done before the night was through. Clear skies and quiet sounded… really nice to her right about now. She was still sort of mad at her friends for the whole setup last Hogsmeade outing and she wasn’t quite ready to partake in the large sleepover quite yet. Didn’t mean she wasn’t prepared, though, because she had all her things so she could quietly sneak in. If asked she was coming back from the loo.

Classic excuse when paired with wide and innocent grey eyes.

Which she really should have been using better considering she ran straight into a wall of warmth and some funny cursing. She blinked owlishly, grey eyes slowly climbing up as she made eye contact with Patrick. Her freckled cheeks burned for a moment before she took a quick step back and cleared her throat.

She wasn’t particularly good at… words. At least not with people she didn’t really know and interactions with upperclassmen were always a bit tricky to maneuver around. It didn’t help that most people also annoyed her and she took a bit to warm up to people. Prickly, she supposed, though she didn’t really mean to be. Concern puckered her eyebrow as his face dropped, and she could help want to ease whatever discomfort he was feeling. It made her anxious, actually, which was beyond pitiful. “Are you alright?” she asked, biting her lip, as she brushed her dark hair away from her face with one hand even as he spoke his own question. She gave him a wide-eyed, stare before blinking up at his innocently. “… the loo?” she whispered back, lips curving up into a bit of a sheepish grin.

It probably wasn’t very believable but Patrick seemed like a nice enough bloke. Most Gryffindors tended to be.

"What?" Disbelief was painted across Towns' features; was he alright? The question was almost laughable from where he stood. So he did, laugh.

"'Course I am, I'm fine," He was quick to assure. The last of his declaration tapered off into a whisper when he remembered that he ought to be more quiet. "Are you?" It dawned on him belatedly that for Adara to have asked, the thought crossed her mind too. He didn't know the younger student well, but she had always seemed nice enough— she didn't at least outwardly have an opinion on him— so he felt bad to have caught her so off-guard.

"Oh yeah?" The loo was Adara's explanation, and immediately his mind had gone to work; they were nowhere near the ladies lavatories, and she had a whole bag over her shoulder. And not just a handbag, either. Towns was proud at his deductive reasoning, even that late. "With all of that?" His brow quirked, gesturing animatedly to the messenger bag and then catching her eye.

Towns could have been wrong (he was sure he wasn't), but Adara Perkins was sneaking out. The smile on his mouth pulled into a knowing grin.

"M'fine, too." she mumbled, feeling a bit sheepish but also mostly glad he seemed to be alright. She was still pretty jittery, though, the longer they stood there and she wondered if it would be in really poor taste if she booked it towards the Astronomy towers before they both got caught loitering in the hallways. She'd figured this would be a good time, with the prefects off the hook with rounds. Not that she'd had a lot of trouble in that department. She'd been lucky enough to dodge Donna, though she'd been caught out of bounds by Danvers. Much as she really hated him when Quidditch season was on she knew he had a soft spot for doe eyes. It amused her that such a tall and seemingly unapproachable bloke had such a weakness, actually, though it made him a lot more approachable.

"Girls often need... girl things when utilizing the loo'." she defended, scrunching her nose a bit, but knowing that her excuse was rather weak and futile. She wasn't putting her heart into it, she thought, amused that Danvers had actually been the one to point out she was a rather shite liar. Her strength definitely lay in being too cute to punish, actually, so she really should've switched gears half a conversation ago. Considering Patrick was grinning at her it couldn't be too bad yea?

"Alright." she started, drawing a breath and spreading her hair back again when it pushed up towards her face at the movement. "There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight and I wanted to get a good look and some quiet before I subject myself to my friends and their terrible and awful ideas." she finally admitted, feeling a bit shy about it. She widened her eyes and readjusted the strap in her messenger bag. "...you're not going to tell on me, are you?" she asked, biting her lip as she stared up, genuine worry lining her face.

Towns did his best to mask a smirk. Girls often needed girl things, she said, his brow perked up in thought. The feeble attempt didn't last long and a grin broke the moment she finished her explanation. He stopped short of questioning further, of course. He had sisters; and that was precisely why he both knew she was lying and also why he knew he was in position to press the matter.

That never ended well.

"Right," He nodded in what he thought was an enthusiastic way. Almost as soon as he'd resigned to going along with the charade, Adara broke. It was only a matter of time, he thought , both arms wrapping around his chest as he leaned a shoulder against the cold castle wall.

"There it is..." Towns mused smugly, already distracted by the idea of whatever her terrible and awful ideas her friends had in mind; that was enticing. "Tell on you?" He barked a laugh before lowering his tone, again realizing he was meant to be quiet when sneaking around. "If I were to do that I'd be implicating myself as well," His words then were softer, more careful.

"Terrible and awful ideas, yeah?" He wondered, unable to stop himself.

The uncertainty of Patrick's general level of trustworthiness sent a little jolt of anxiety through her system, though she refused to show it. She tended to worry about, well, everything to be honest. All the while trying to appear as unaffected by those worries as possible. She supposed she did have more of a leniency for those of her house, however, because she'd categorized them all as safe in her head. Besides most of her housemates were sort of ... protective and easygoing so it made life simple for her. It was those that belonged in the other houses she found herself avoiding in an effort to curb her awkwardness. She spoke rarely, and when she did it tended to be an intense opinion so it was usually best if she just... didn't in an effort to not be rude.

Her grey eyes flickered over Patrick's form, amused, when he leaned on the stone wall. She had a biting retort on the tip of her tongue before she gave up and groaned instead. Why were boys so difficult to understand? She couldn't quite wrap her head around how their minds worked, half the time. "You don't have to be so smug." she quipped, feeling a flush heat her cheeks as she huffed. She took a moment to catalogue the sound of his laughter (not awful, sort of nice sounding, but quite loud) before she reminded herself, quite sternly, to focus. She cast a quick glance around the corner, unconsciously shifting herself closer to the older Gryffindor, as she held her breath and waiting a moment. After a beat she snuck even closer to the wall, hoping for a little more cover in the hallway before she glanced back at Patrick.

She bit her lip as she ducked her head, irritated with herself for even mentioning off hand, because this wasn't something she wanted to, well, it was all very stupid and she'd been trying to dodge it for months now, focusing instead on her OWL's but now she didn't even have that excuse anymore, did she? And she knew her friends were just... wanting her to have someone, too, only she shied away from the thought of dating, confused about how she felt about it. Wasn't it supposed to just... happen naturally? It shouldn't be forced she didn't think and despite whatever was going on in Duncans Slytherin brain she was pretty sure they basically had zero in common. "Erm." she started, sheepish, as she glanced back at the wizard. "Nola's trying to set me up and I'm not... keen I guess." she muttered, acknowledging that something had to be, like, fatally wrong with her brain.

She thought Leo was freakishly attractive, even, but his personality had never scream 'snog me' me to her, as an example. And though she felt sort of guilty for thwarting all of Duncan's attempts at getting to know her she was still very resistant to the idea. You'd think she'd want her first snog out of the way but... wasn't it supposed to mean something?

Oh, poor Adara, Towns thought to himself, certain that the look on his face said as much. What she didn't realize was, yes, yes he did have to be that smug. It was one of the many character flaws he had discovered about himself over the years, and one that he also determined was untreatable. Smug is how he would be the rest of his life. He followed her gaze around the corridor and when she looked back all he could offer was half of a shrug.

"Sorry, can't help it," He wasn't sorry, but he really couldn't help it. And the response was more to fill the quiet spaces of conversation than to actually answer.

"Oh—" Patrick's expression had shifted to convey his confusion. There were twitches of amusement here and there; in the corners of his mouth, his tongue pressed (to his cheek from blurting out the first thing that came to mind) the quirk of his brow. He didn't know Adara. Not really, anyway. So he had to be at least somewhat courteous. Besides, he still wasn't entirely convinced that the witch wasn't some kind of prefect plant, looking for degenerates roaming the halls after hours.

"That's..." Towns finally gave into a grin. "Definitely not what I was expecting," He laughed. "I mean, terrible and awful ideas sound a bit more fun," Not that her love life wasn't fun...

She really wanted to pout but settled for huff of irritation instead. Her gray eyes were framed by thick dark lashes narrowed as she realized he was being smug on purpose. The … jerk, she thought inwardly, though,  amusement was certainly mixed in. This was why she didn’t think she was much of a people person. Her instinct was to call him out on it and it took quite a bit to curb her tongue. Such a spirited reaction wasn’t warranted, really, especially since she wasn’t actually mad.

“You don’t seem sorry at all.” she muttered, though a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. There was a glimmer of amusement there, despite her reservations and her worries. Perhaps that’s what made her a Gryffindor though, wasn’t it? She tended to push back the things that made her afraid.

She colored a second later, feeling mortification manifest as vague nausea, hands fluttering uselessly against her side. “They’re just-“ she started, gnawing at her lip again, but also feeling a little bit defensive of her friends. Their hearts were in the right place, really, and if she’d been in any way normal she’d have been rather flattered the older Slytherin took such an interest. By all intent and purposes she really should have been but well, it all seemed more of a nuisance than anything. An annoyance and a hassle in one, considering she didn’t fancy him at all.

Weren’t you supposed to feel all floaty and lightheaded or something? Like one did when you swooped around on a broom and the first sign of wobbly legs when you landed and your feet touched the ground. If a bloke couldn’t give her a head rush akin to flying he had no business lurking about demanding anything of her.

“Nevermind. They’re rather well-meaning.” she finished after a pause, not knowing how to put her thoughts in an orderly enough fashion as to make sense. “I just wanted to see the meteor shower.” she said earnestly, face lighting up at the thought. She figured she’d be able to avoid the unsolicited matchmaking that way, and she always loved to indulge a bit in pretty things. Solitude tended to be a preference but she enjoyed people she felt could be as appreciative of things as she was. Even then, though, she figured she just appreciated people for their strengths just not in large doses depending. “What about you then? Is being out of bounds worth it for whatever mischief of your own you’ve got planned?” She asked curiously, her head twisting a bit at the inquiry.