seems electric ; never coming down { JR }

JR eyed the cards with a critical look before her comment caught him off guard and he snapped his gaze back to hers. "Why?" he asked as she said she would rewrite his card. Made him wonder what she had written already and how exactly it would change now that their 'status' had changed too. "What are you going to change?" he asked and then blinked as a thought occurred to him.

"Should I give you one now?" he asked and then was regretting it a moment later. He didn't know the answer for sure and he didn't exactly know what the role of boyfriend meant (he idly wondered if there was a playbook or something he could study), but he knew it wasn't cool to ask her about it.

As she stacked up her cards, he berated himself in his mind for asking that stupid question and bent over to try the scourgify charm on the ink blot she had gotten on his shoe. Guess he had to forgive her for that now that she was his girlfriend. That's how it worked right? He glanced up as she offered and he paused.

He normally would just do it himself but he didn't know what the rules were now. Was he supposed to say yes? "Uh, sure," he answered as he straightened and leaned against the table as he looked at her and waited. "Don't rearrange my face or anything," he warned lightly. the tiniest quirk of his lips as they turned up.

She gave him a look when he asked what she’d change. What did he think? “I’ll put like a sappy poem in there,” Tomie joked, clearly teasing him. When he asked if he should write her one, she felt embarrassed. “I dunno,” she said. Then, “Probably.” She glanced down, finished packing up her Valentine’s day cards. She pocketed the stack.

JR leaned up against the table and Tomie smirked a bit at his answer. “No guarantees,” she said, teasing (flirting??) as she came in close enough to do it. She held her wand up to his cheek and said the charm out loud, satisfied when it worked and his face wasn’t rearranged. Tomie lingered, though, a curious look in her eyes as she met his gaze. “Just…” She leaned in a little, with the unfinished thought on the tip of her tongue.

Tomie pressed her lips gently to his cheek, just enough that they made a quiet kiss sound when she pulled back. It was a bit weird; if she’d tried something similar ten minutes ago he might have punched her. She definitely would have punched him — still might if he tried it now, ha. It felt nice, though, and she felt very Grown Up, which was cool. Or whatever. Tomie pulled back, unable to help the smile that spread across her face. She shook her head, mostly at herself, feeling embarrassed but in a way that wasn’t entirely awful.

“Okay,” she said, tucking some hair behind her ear. She was all packed up.

Whatever amusement he felt over her 'sappy poem' remark and whatever quip had been on the tip of his tongue about how he would bet he could write a better one (he couldn't but he could just ask Nola secretly if she wasn't being a brat), but that all died as she agreed with him on needing to get her a gift. Shoot. He watched as she shuffled her cards and nodded once. Yeah, he could do that. How hard could it be? Picking out a gift for his girlfriend. He had given her plenty of things before - candy on the Hogwarts Express, tickets to a Griffins game - but this felt different. He fought against the embarrassment he felt at asking such a stupid question and just gave her a shrug instead. "Alright then," he said as if that concluded everything.

Now all he had to do was figure out what the heck boyfriends gave to their girlfriends. Should he ask her what she wanted... He shot his own idea down quickly, not wanting to ask something else that was dumb and make her change her mind about the whole dating thing.

As she came closer, wand out and at the ready, he squeezed the edge of the table, his smile tight as she teased him, but he trusted her, mostly. Or maybe it was more accurate to say he wanted to trust her. And it was a little distracting with her gaze on him like that and so close. It was almost as if he was noticing the ring of darker brown on the edges for the first time. Had he not noticed that before? Was she---

He stopped thinking. Her lips, on his cheek. He felt his whole body still. The sound of the kiss hanging between them as JR felt his cheeks flush and hoped to hell his dark skin wouldn't betray him. And it was foreign and new, but as he took in her smile and an answering one curved up his lips, maybe he kind of liked it. JR took a step toward the door before remembering his bag was there under the table, shouldering it before he returned to her side and gave her a grin. "Let's go."

/end

She was glad he didn’t say anything, glad didn’t tease her or even actually just say any single thing that would have acknowledged that she’d just kissed him. Only on the cheek, but! Whatever! If he thought it was better to just do it and not talk about it then, well, she agreed. Shelby crept back into her stupid head just then, as if she’d been summoned, and Tomie shooed her away.

JR was smiling back at her, though. That was cool.

Very briefly, she considered taking his hand as they walked out, but that would definitely be way too much. Instead, she just double checked she had everything, then slung her backpack over one shoulder (both hands holding firmly onto the single strap, but not because she was nervous or anything). Her hand felt a little sweaty just at the thought. Gross. Tomie wasn’t sure what to say, and his lets go was brief; there wasn’t anything in there to tease him with.

“Sounds good,” Tomie said simply. Two-word response for a two-word sentence. She nodded twice, too, a silly little smile still tugging at her lips.

— end —