partners in crime Ilvermorny private Closed

RPing as: Donovan Salinger || Ilvermorny dNPC

@Catriona Staverly

It was very easy for Don to feel emotions for people because he was a very emotional person, with lots of love, empathy, appreciation, and forgiveness to give out like candy on Halloween.
This often posed a problem when he was trying to not fall for people who didn't deserve it, love emotionally unavailable people, or want to do things for them to gain their appreciation. As an insecure teenager, it was on the very brink of impossible to not do that. So when Delia Finch of all people started her little game of flirting, Don took it very seriously and had the impression she had feelings for him. Or thought he was attractive enough to do that.

That was when the self doubt jumped in.
Delia was a very cat-like person, but like... a mysterious street cat. You could click your tongue all you wanted, you could coo and squat down to meet her height, but she'd just stare at you, unblinking, with unamused eyes and an unmoving body. Don had been doing that, sitting down on the street, calling her softly to try and get her attention. He'd done a lot of emotional things for her, like show her his films even though they were exclusively for him and him only but he all of a sudden decided that she was special enough to see them. She thought they were funny, and that was good enough for him. He'd done fake drag shows for her late at night, and then laugh and hug her even though she'd push his face off away from her and smudge his makeup all over the place.

Basically, he was in love with her, and he only knew one way to express that it was definitely romantic and that he would literally do anything to make her happy, or make her feel worthy, or anything she needed. He did not have a plan whatsoever, but it was a lot funnier that way. He'd only had the idea to ask her to the dance - ball - whatever, and she'd probably either see it as a joke, or take it seriously and knock him the fuck out. Or reject him. Or say yes. The last option seemed very ideal, but he couldn't get his hopes up too quick. It was very easy for him to get his hopes up, it was basically all he ever did, and that often got him into a lot of emotional turmoil. Made him a mess, one that his friends usually helped clean up. He wondered what would happen if one of his own friends was the reason for that emotional turmoil, if they'd even realize it. He hoped they wouldn't.

Don's dream girl could easily be described as Courtney Love in the 90's, minus the drugs and murder, with a really cute, sweet personality and all that-- the difference between Delia and his dream girl, though, was that Delia was real. And he'd pick reality any time of the week. He'd pick Delia over everything, and that thought made his heart get all cold and weird and do spins in his chest. It was an indescribable emotion, but it was cold-hot and made his face feel fuzzy and his lips a little bit numb. His fingers tingled at that sensation, nervousness, and maybe a little winter's kiss of happiness, too.

He was relieved to have seen her already there, and decided to give himself a head start run. With this, he basically slammed right into her, as he normally did, by pouncing on her back. In the past, he'd learned that this particular greeting was not a good idea because the very first time he did it, he came back with a busted lip and a broken eye. It was very sexy of him, and very sexy of her. It was real funny.

"Delia! Miss Finch! Missus!" He hollered, grabbing her cheeks with his hands, squishing them together with a small grin. "Hi." Looking at her right in the face, he realized how totally-not-nervous he was about this. Totally not. Not nervous. Not nervous at all, no sir.

rping as approved dNPC Delia Finch

Delia saw Don approaching her far before he pounced on her, giving her just long enough to prepare for the influx of weight. She grinned despite herself. "Good day Mr. Salinger," she said, laughter coloring her words with amusement. "You should probably get off me, I think my back's gonna break." That was a lie, she was strong enough after Quidditch not to buckle under his weight. But she wanted to see Don's face. Could you really blame her? No, you couldn't.

She shifted him off her gently, turning to face him with a smirk plastered back on her lips, any remnant of the doubt in her mind before gone. "So, why'd you want to see me?" She wanted to say something else, a sly comment about him missing her pretty face, but she didn't. It was all different now. It wasn't like she could just go back to flirting with him when he didn't care. She had to, for appearances sake, but that didn't mean she'd like it. She just wanted to tell him how great he was and mean it.

That didn't make any sense. Nothing Delia ever thought made any sense and it was driving her batshit insane. Don seemed like an open book when you first met him, but as Delia got to know him, really know him, she realized how much there was under the surface. Like his short films, the ones he'd shown her. They reminded her of that feeling of shock and hilarity she felt when he said something random but somehow relevant but concentrated in one single film. It was brilliant and Delia couldn't help but feel bad. Bad that she hadn't seen all of this before. Did it make her a bad person that she'd wanted to toy with him a little. Before at least. Or maybe not a bad person, but it was a bad thing to do. She'd never really cared about all that stuff before this, but now everything was different.

Toying with people was all well and good, but if one person got in too deep all hell broke loose. How on Earth could she have even thought about doing that to Don? It made her wish she knew where the Quidditch pitch was. Everything was so much easier when she was in the air, just her up there with nothing holding her back. Thoughts were easier to drown out when the roar of the wind was louder than the pounding of her heart.

@Gem Stuart

@Catriona Staverly

"Bullshit! You could pick up a whole truck and the people in it if you wanted to!" Don's voice pitched up, but after a few seconds of hanging off her back, he complied, dropping his feet back down on the stony ground. He wished they could talk a little bit before he just slapped her in the face with a 'WANT TO GO TO THE DANCE WITH ME ALSO WANT TO BE MY GIRLFRIEND?', but it seemed like that would have to be said about three responses in. Also, it just so happened that he'd have to say that for the conversation to even advance properly. Great.

"Well, mostly because I heard from a huge bird. He said that he was gonna make this gigantic nest on Hogwarts, and that the ceiling will probably collapse, so I wanted to bring you out here before everyone else died. Maybe that was selfish, but everyone else was conspiring against us because they're all planning this massive experiment where they turn us into building tools and sometimes, if you're lucky, mice, so I didn't feel so bad. It's just the two of us now, sorry about that." He blinked a few times, his face still solid and still. There was a kid that walked by who stared at him all weird, and he made a face back.

Focus, Don. Focus.
"Um, no... actually, I was just wonderin' if you wanted to go to the dance? With me? Not as friends? Like, the relationship way? BecauseIreallylikeyou?" He sort of braced himself for both a punch in the face, whether it be a literal knuckle sandwich, or a punch in the face that came in the form of 'No.' He knew that getting punched in the actual face would've felt a lot better than her ever telling him no to say that kind of thing.

He was fragile, like a box of glass - or eggs. He was a box of eggs, except the box was made of glass. And the glass was really thin and had CAUTION: FRAGILE taped all over it. He knew that Delia knew this, because she'd hurt his feelings on accident loads of times, all of which he got over in a few hours because she gave him a reluctant hug in the end. It was tough at the beginning, seeing as he legitimately thought she hated him, but how wrong he was. He hoped she didn't hate him after this. That would break him, and it wouldn't be repairable. That scared him, scared the straight pants off him, actually. He wouldn't deal too well with her hating him, and he was sure every single person who so much as looked at the two of them casually walking around knew that. He was basically clinging to her like a little kid to his own mom.

rping as approved dNPC Delia Finch

Delia usually loved it when Don went on one of his odd tangents. This was not one of those times. She knew she was here for a reason, and definitely not because of a giant bird's nest (unless Delia's hair counted). She was fully prepared to drag the truth out of him when he said something else. When he said he liked her.

"You—" She had to stop to collect herself before she said something embarrassing. Fuck, it didn't matter. It didn't matter because Don liked her and he was looking at her, like he thought she was going to punch him or something. Did he really think she would do something like that? Maybe she was worse than she thought, especially if one of the people she cared about most in the world thought she would punch him for baring his soul to her. She would honestly rather throw herself into the pits of hell (as if she wasn't headed there already).

She needed to say something. Do something. "I thought we were already married." NO. What the actual hell was that. Something else. "I— ok this is harder than it looks" Goddamn it, why was this so hard to say? She knew he liked her too, but somehow she couldn't get the words to come out of her mouth. "I like you too."

It didn't seem like enough though. It wasn't nearly enough. After all that flirting and layers and layers of bad decisions, it just felt hollow. There had to be something she—

Oh.

There wasn't enough air in the world to fill her lungs. It was like she was free falling off her broom only she couldn't grab it because it was only slightly out of reach. Ok, ok, ok, she could do this. She was Delia Finch and she was NOT afraid.

She leaned upwards, trying to reach Don's face. This tactic failed miserably and she ended up tugging his face down to meet hers, pressing her lips to his quickly before pulling back and gauging his reaction. There weren't any fireworks, but it felt comfortable. Like it was right. Like they fit.

It wasn't her first kiss, but somehow it was much more important.

@Gem Stuart

@Catriona Staverly

Wow, Don's very first thoughts were, Delia's a real mess.

He always thought he was one to ramble, but she couldn't even ramble - she had her thoughts jumbled up like food in a frying pan, sputtering weird sentences out. At least she admitted it was hard. That next part though, the part where she grappled at his face and pulled him down for a kiss? That was good. That was great, actually, and he could suddenly feel the jumbled up brain thing. He wouldn't have even been able to speak in the first place, she was capable of a lot more than he'd originally thought. Being coherent was one of the hardest things in the world, for someone like Don.

Instead of thinking more, he leaned into the kiss, reaching up to pull some strands of hair out from between their faces. He smiled a little bit, his hands finally situating themselves by cupping her jaw. It was a lot nicer than he'd imagined, and she was really gentle, and then he remembered that he was holding his breath all of a sudden and decided to pull back before he passed out on her.

"So..." He sniffed, keeping his shoulders sagged so he was prepared... just in case she wanted to lay another one on him. "You didn't burp in my mouth, which makes it great. I rate it a nine point five out of ten." He was a professional at ruining sentimental moments with stupid jokes, but maybe that made it more sentimental.

"You get an extra point five bonus if you agree to be my girlfriend. Only if, there is nothing else you can do to get it. I know you like to win, so... y'know, maybe consider it? Maybe." He coughed into his first awkwardly, hoping he wasn't making things all weird by making her think she didn't have a choice or whatever. He would backtrack, but somehow, he felt like that would make it worse.

rping as approved dNPC Delia Finch

Delia pouted, nudging Don playfully in the shoulder. "That was clearly a ten out of ten, you ass." She grinned at him, shaking her head a little. "I dunno... take me to dinner first?" She winked at him so he'd know she was joking. "In all seriousness though, I'd love to be your girlfriend. So HA! I win."

"But... I did want to apologize." That anger (at herself) was still there, thrumming beneath her skin. "I didn't mean to upset you with all the flirting— I just," she paused abruptly, rubbing a hand over her eyes. "It didn't start out as anything serious... I had a minor crush on you, maybe, but I didn't intend for it to go anywhere." She really needed to get ahold of herself. She straightened up, willing herself to not be weak. "And then I started to like you. You showed me all those films and then we started spending time together and I didn't think I could stop." She shrugged, letting the gesture appear flippant even though it was everything but. "So, I'm sorry. But I'm not sorry I like you, because that ended up going really well considering it started with a shitty decision on my part."

Everything about that apology seemed weird and awful and Delia winced. She was so much better at doing things when they didn't matter. This mattered a hell of a lot. She'd just have to be better. Better about everything. No more playing with people's emotions, she guessed. She had Don now, and that was more than enough.

@Gem Stuart