[thd] life in colour [cosimo]

"Don't you see? My hair turned f****** blue after using the potion yesterday!" Emma knew that people were watching and she also knew that the woman behind the counter didn't appreciate her swearing but did she care? No, absolutely not. She'd wanted to accentuate her natural blond highlights but now she looked like an idiot. A blue-haired idiot. The worst thing about it? Her planned date with Rainer was today. Today! And her hair was blue! She wanted it fixed and her money back. Like now.

Squinting her eyes, the Bellefeuille twirled a starnd of hair around her finger and leaned over the counter, holding her finger right under the woman's nose. "I didn't pay for this. There's definitely something wrong with that stupid potion and I need you to fix it. I don't care if you don't have time. I don't have time for it either." Emma slammed the still almost full vial on the counter and moved it towards the witch. "You can have it back and test it if you want to. I definitely won't need it anymore." Fuming, the tapped her fingers on the counter, waiting for a reaction.

Cosimo hadn't come in here to hear Emma yelling at the person behind the counter, but here he was, hovering behind a shelf as she did so. Fierce girls really did something for him, he thought. He liked them angry, worked up, fearless in the face of danger. All kinds of fierce worked for him. Of course, it helped when they were objectively hot. Ugly angry girls were not a turn-on, after all. That wasn't a problem with Emma, though. He remembered their kiss in the broom closet, and the way she'd got all slinky when she'd wanted something from him. Of course she wouldn't remember that. Or at least, she wouldn't remember that it was him.

The teenager sauntered over. "Hey blueberry," he said, slipping in next to her at the counter as he slid some basic potions over the counter to buy. Boring things, like for hayfever and such. Cosimo and Emma weren't friends, but the times they'd hung out he'd had a good time. She seemed like a cool girl. Cosimo leaned his elbows on the counter as he waited for the person behind it to process both his order and Emma's complaint. "It's not so bad," he commented, looking sideways at her with a bit of a well-natured smirk on his face. "Makes you look more... rock." He wondered if she liked good music, like Lyra had.

Hey blueberry.

Still furious, Emma turned around, glaring at the Papillonlisse boy. "Of course you'd make fun of me," she snapped back, knowing perfectly well that it was wrong to direct her anger at the boy. It wasn't his fault, after all. More rock? Yeah, sure. She wouldn't mind a blue strand or a few ones but all of her hair? No, she didn't think it looked good at all. Maybe someone like Gabrielle Delacour could pull it off but then again, the girl could wear a potato sack and would look fabulous in it. "Too bad I don't care if you like it or not." The shop employee cleared her throat and Emma focused on her again, hoping that she had a solution for her problem.

Luckily for her, she had.

While she'd been talking to Cosimo, the other witch had obviously disappeared for a few seconds, getting another vial out of one of the various cabinets. Here, take this one and it should be okay again in about two hours. It's free of course. "Good, thank you." After putting the vial into her pocket, Emma held her hand open, a challenging look on her face. "Can I get my money back for the defective potion? Pretty please?"

The woman wasn't happy but eventually she returned the money and Emma thanked her, a pleased look on her face. When she turned around again, Cosimo was still there and now that she knew that everything would turn out just fine, she gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry for being an ass earlier. Let me make it up to you."

Cosimo raised his eyebrows as she snapped at him, resisting the urge to snap back with something witty but unable to resist the urge to smirk. He didn't know why he liked them angry, he thought. He just did. Cosimo waited because... well, he needed his anti-hayfever potion, right? He stood there, leaning against the counter and fiddling with the vials while he waited his turn. Emma did a backflip after getting what she wanted and apparently wasn't angry at him anymore. He liked her blonde hair, but he had to admit that the blue made her look a little more tough.

Make it up to him?

"Sure, lets go on a date," Cosimo replied without missing a beat. His face split into a devilish grin. "Kidding. But I will let you buy me a coffee?" he said. The teenager chuckled while the attendant put his vials through. He paid with a few silver coins and pocketed the things. The pair stepped outside and started walking down the street.

Cosimo slowed as he saw it again. The same slender house he'd seen when he was with Rosalia. He couldn't hide the surprise in his expression. The house was nestled in between two shops and it definitely hadn't been there when he'd walked here earlier today. Peeling paint, boarded up windows... It was the same house. In a place where a house shouldn't be. "Tell me you're seeing what I'm seeing," he said, glancing at her. He didn't even think that she might not understand the significance of it. He was being haunted by a damn house! It was following him around! Cosimo looked back at it, feeling a little uncharacteristically nervous.

"Haha, how funny." Emma rolled her eyes at the boy, deciding that it must've been a joke. Coffee? Now that was better. "Sure, let's go." She still had enough time left to buy him a coffee and to use the potion to change her hair colour back again before she'd meet up with Rainer. They left the shop after Cosimo got his potion, walking in the direction of the nearest café. Now that she'd gotten the money for the potion back, her pockets weren't empty anymore. Otherwise it would have been hard to actually buy him that coffee.

He slowed, something Emma only realised after she'd already walked past him, and she stopped, looking at him questioningly. "What do you mean? The creepy looking house?" She couldn't remember that she'd seen it before but it had probably always been there. A house couldn't just appear at random, right? Looking at the house and back at him, a smirk suddenly appeared on her face. "You're not scared, are you?" Her hair was forgotten for a minute and she took a step towards the door. "I dare you to go in there with me." Said and done.

Without waiting for him, Emma tried the door handle and surprise! The door opened. She took a step inside, it was darker than she'd thought it would be but now it was too late to cop put. The Bellefeuille took another step into the entry hall when a loud noise suddenly echoed through the building. Shit! Her heart was beating fast and she couldn't deny that she was a liiiiittle scared now but it was just a stupid house, right?

"Dude, this house is fucking haunting me," Cosimo said without explanation. He knew his blonde Belle friend was teasing him, and usually he wouldn't let that slide, but this was actually the weirdest thing ever. "That wasn't there this morning," he said, pointing an accusatory finger at the house in question. But he didn't often back down from dares. He shook his head at her dare, but when she walked towards the house, Cosimo didn't allow himself to be left behind. He hesitated before stepping over the threshold and entering the house. He had a bad feeling about it all. After a troubled moment, he followed her. His footsteps sounded loud in the quiet house. It was dark in here. Too dark. He got his wand out.

Cosimo's heart jumped into his throat as the loud noise screamed through the building. He felt an eerie breeze rise up from the creaky floorboards underneath them. "Oh man," he said, suddenly remembering what might happen next... The door slammed shut behind them. Cosimo knew that lumos wouldn't work now - it hadn't worked when he'd tried it last time he'd been in here. The damn house was trying to kidnap him or something. Pointing his wand in the direction of the door - not that he could see anything - Cosimo tried to blast it open, like he'd done last time. He was going to make it to his next birthday if he had to claw his way out of here physically.

Nothing happened.

They were trapped.

The teenager was terrified.