26 Mar 2022, 16:14
Right Where We Are
Graphic by Liana KerrAngelFyre Anxiously Waits for Her UnBoyfriend @Simon Kincaid
April 2, 2022
AngelFyre had been planning something for quite some time for Simon. She knew she would never be able to erase his memory of her having said ‘No’ to his request to be his girlfriend in this room… his special place… actually… their special place now… so she had decided that the next best thing she could do for the both of them would be to replace the bad memory with a good memory. Toward that end, AngelFyre had been sneaking away to the Rehearsal Room in the mornings during breakfast to secretly practice. She had chosen this time of day because she knew Simon never came here in the mornings, probably because like most normal students he was too busy getting ready for his school day. Maybe it was also because the room was bathed in glorious sunlight in the mornings. She wondered if he knew that about this place. Even though the honeyed, yellow-orange rays would have hurt him, she knew he would have appreciated their beauty and the natural beauty of the room's complexion in this light.
When he asked her one day why she had not been showing up for breakfast, she fibbed to him. Normally she did not like to lie, especially to Simon of all people, but she justified this little white lie because it was a surprise for him. She told him that she had been putting in extra time in the Dueling Room since she was now officially on the Hufflepuff Dueling team roster. She further added that by practicing in the mornings, more of her time was opened up to spend with him in the evenings. As it turned out, AngelFyre had discovered this was a fib now, but it was a practice she intended to pursue long after the surprise. She was never a fan of breakfast anyway, and practicing her casting in the mornings really would free up time to be with Simon. A total win/win situation in her book.
The time had come to see if her practice had paid off. It was now the day of the Mid-Spring Celebration, April 2, and the Ball was due to start in little over an hour. The moon had revolved around the earth 46 times since their last meeting in this room, and AngelFyre had never been happier. They could both laugh about it now, and they often did, but on the evening of February 15th, they had teetered precariously on the precipice of not even becoming a ‘Simon and AngelFyre’. AngelFyre involuntarily shuddered at that thought. Simon was just so much a part of her now and she could not imagine her life without him in it. But even so, she knew they had only just begun to be what they could be to and for each other.
Still, Simon would good-naturedly make some big show daily to see if her ring had been turned towards her heart, one time commenting about how he had claimed her as his girlfriend once upon a time and long, lonnnng ago, but how he was just sitting in some metaphorical, Lost & Unfound box, dejected and completely unclaimed as AngelFyre’s boyfriend. Another time he teased that this would be a great story to tell their children one day – how Mum had been Dad's girlfriend while Dad had been Mum’s unboyfriend and if it had continued on like that, they all would have been their unchildren. His eyes were always smiling when he made these little jokes, and they were funny and they both really did laugh at them, but she knew beneath his laughter his heart was aching to finally see that the positioning of her ring had changed.
As she kept her eyes and ears fixed on the Rehearsal Room door, AngelFyre was feeling that nervous, anticipatory adrenaline rush as all of her senses seemed acutely heightened in those moments. She was going over her mental checklist. Most of the candlelight along the walls had been dimmed, though the chandelier still cast its glow onto the dance floor. She had devoted the whole of that morning Muggle-ing her way through to taping off certain crystals on the chandelier so that the light dancing from the candles above and below them would refract in a rainbow of colors while casting a beautiful heart shape onto the wooden dance floor below. She was dressed, but not for the Ball, and was swallowed within the deepest shadows as she stood, in position, by the gramophone.
Simon would be showing up any minute now, at AngelFyre’s request, dressed for the Ball. He would be walking into this room as her “unboyfriend”, but if all went as planned, he would not be walking out that way.
Last edited by AngelFyre McCubbin on 8 Apr 2022, 08:07, edited 5 times in total.
The magic is real.
26 Mar 2022, 21:27
Right Where We Are
Meeting @AngelFyre McCubbin in the Rehearsal Room
The last weeks had been pretty good. While no letters came from an absent father, they did come plentiful from Aunt Maggie and also thanks to that brilliant woman, he had an outfit pulled together for the Blossom Ball. This year he was being a little adventurous and seeing how pink played out with his paler skin and golden brown eyes. Surely if any time was the right time to do such, it was for the Spring dance.
This year he was going with AngelFyre McCubbin and that too had been going fairly well for him. He had given himself to her as her boyfriend on February 15th and now it was April 2nd. Sure, she hadn't accepted back in the sense of being his girlfriend yet but perhaps that would be coming. He would try to be patient for such a title and in the meantime shared much of his waking and nonschooling hours with her, whether it was lazily study in the Library or sitting across the fire in the Hufflepuff Common Room.
It had been requested that Simon meet her in the Rehearsal Room, wearing his attire for the Ball. As he made his way to the Fourth Floor of the Castle he wondered why she had asked him there but he wouldn't deny her request. He would walk through fire for that girl.
At the Rehearsal Room entrance, he pushed opened the heavy wooden doors and walked in. He had on his light tan suit with shoes to match, a pink floral tie and pocket handkerchief, a boutonniere with a white flower and tropical accents, and the golden claddagh ring that AngelFyre had given him on the night of February 15th.
"AngelFyre? You in here, love?" he asked, slowly making his way into the room a little further, glancing above and noting how the chandelier cast out it's light perfectly in the moment. They might not have been officially a couple yet, but he still spoke softly with her, held her hand when he could, and his gaze lingered a little longer when it came to her.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
27 Mar 2022, 02:28
Right Where We Are
AngelFyre Makes New Memories for and with @Simon Kincaid
[font=English111 Vivace BT]W[/font]hen the doors opened and he stepped into the room, he momentarily took AngelFyre’s breath away. Simon was always attractive, but if it had been possible to freeze moments in time, AngelFyre would have given just about anything to capture that one very particular moment. Simon had never looked more handsome to her. She had never seen him in a suit, and it …well… it suited him. He looked so masculine and mature. As she did a thousand times a day, every day, she silently thanked God for blessing her life so richly with the gift of Simon. Then hearing him call out her name, her focus was brought back to the purpose of asking him here in the first place.
Softly she answered him from the shadows. “I am here, Simon. You look absolutely incredible, mo chridhe.” my heart Then before he could speak further, she continued. “Do not say another word. Just close the doors and then walk over to the piano bench and take off your jacket.” He looked a little confused, but a smile was quickly turning up the corners of his lips as he did what she had asked of him. As he approached the piano bench and was taking off his jacket, she decided that maybe she should ask him to loosen his tie as well, so she did and then he did. She took a deep breath and felt her body begin to tingle. She smiled. The sensation was a welcome feeling, and old friend even. It was her body’s way of letting her know she had this… she was prepared and ready. Now it was just a matter of having fun with it.
“I thought we might have a first dance before the dance -- something special just for the two of us. This song is special to me and since it was right where we are now that everything started between us, it seemed the logical choice. I am going to warn you though, my part is rather choreographed. Just try to follow my lead and be prepared to put that incredible dhampir strength of yours to good use for the next couple of minutes. Above all, just have fun because I know I will.” As she willed her eyes off of him, she looked down at the gramophone and started to crank it. While she did this, she instructed him to move to the corner diagonally across from where she was standing. “Once I get into position and I start moving to you from this corner, all you have to do initially is move towards me, at the same pace, the rest will come as it comes. Happy Mid-Spring Celebration 2022, my love.” And with one last crank of the gramophone, she placed the needle down on the very new vinyl and stepped into position.
The room was not completely dark, but there was not a tremendous amount of light either. AngelFyre was not in her ball gown, but was instead in a white dance leotard, with a lovely diaphanous and asymmetrical skirt. She was going to need a lot more freedom to move than her ball gown would allow for this dance. The room was quiet except for the scratchy sounds and crackle pops that were coming from the needle until it found the groove it sought. AngelFyre knew each and every one of those scratchy sounds by heart at this point, and stood across from Simon, smiling softly at him. And then the music started.
AngelFyre moved slowly, and very deliberately towards him. Each step taken with her toes pointed before touching the dance floor. For his part, Simon was meeting her, as she knew he would, paced step for paced step. When they met in the middle, she could tell by the sparkle in his eyes he was pleased. She placed both hands on his chest as he put his hands on her arms, sliding them down towards her hands. Almost as quickly as he had done that, she held onto his one hand and spun out away from and then fully back into him, hair whipping around as she came to a sudden stop against his chest. Listening to the rhythm of the song, Simon took a step back and AngelFyre followed by leaning in, but then he stepped forward and she stepped back into place. Standing erect in front of him, she reached over with her left hand and took his left hand and raised it up to standard ballroom dancing position. She then placed her right hand in his left one and was about to reach for his right hand to place it on her waist, but his gaze was not where it should be, so with her left hand she gently cupped the underside of his chin and lifted it up, locking her gaze onto his. She quickly swept some stray tendrils of hair from her face and then let her left hand rest on his shoulder as his right naturally found its place on her waist. And then the rest just sort of magically worked itself out.
She would whisper in his ear what to do when a leap or a lift was coming, but honestly, Simon was so musically and rhythmically gifted, much of it he just leaned into and figured out masterfully on his own. One of his own brilliant additions to the routine was to pretend that her leg was a guitar he was strumming. AngelFyre just adored his quick thinking. Truth was, AngelFyre just adored Simon.
There were sections in particular in the song that always brought (happy) tears to her eyes because it was so them. The first such section was towards the beginning --
And I’m thinking ‘bout how people
Fall in love in mysterious ways
Maybe just the touch of a hand
Those lines always took her to their time at the piano when his hand accidentally brushed against hers and they locked their gaze for the very first time. To this day AngelFyre was still happily drowning in the depths of Simon’s beautiful golden brown eyes and it was one of her fervent hopes that she would never to have to surface. The other section that was especially poignant for her was sung a couple of times, and it was reminiscent of the times she had put her hand over his heart, first in the Library and then at the Great Lake.
Take me into your loving arms
Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars
Place your hands on my beating heart
I’m, thinking out loud
Maybe we found love right where we are
As the song was coming to its end, her heart was joyously full because she had done it…no, they had done it… and they had done it quite spectacularly she immodestly thought. As happy as she was about all of that, it was not even the best part. That was still a discovery for Simon to make. As they were holding hands at the very end and he hopped back towards her before they both sat on the ground, and then he went onto his back and she was on her side next to him, the music ended and they were both breathing harder, but not too terribly hard. The final resting place for her right hand happened to be over his heart. My hand always to your heart, love.
AngelFyre wondered how long it might be before he noticed that the heart tip of her ring was now pointed towards her own heart.
That.
That was her real gift to him that evening.
The magic is real.
27 Mar 2022, 03:17
Right Where We Are
Revelations once more with @AngelFyre McCubbin
AngelFyre McCubbin never ceased to amaze him. Whether it was her name, her accent, her quick tongue when it came to a slight near insult of her farm back home, or her astonishing dancing skills - she never stopped surprising him. This particular moment was no different and he knew it had to have taken her a far great deal of practice to get just right. She had a vision for how it was in her head and he only hoped he had done his share of the dance well enough that she was happy with it. He had been a good dancer, perhaps not the best, but he had rhythm and he had a good musical sense and he had no inhibitions on such matters.
If someone were there filming it, Simon would imagine that they had looked quite well in that dance and AngelFyre couldn't have looked more amazing. It was more than the dance, more than the hair that fell around her face, more than the way the light danced upon her. It was everything; absolutely everything.
Simon laid there now on the wooden floor of the Rehearsal Room and looked up to the chandelier above, allowing his breath and heart rate to slow, a little difficult to do when she was so close with him. He leaned his face near hers, gently nuzzling it close to hers and smiled before finding her lips for a slow kiss. "I hope you don't think I've got the stamina to dance like that all night," he whispered before smiling.
The song had ended and the quietness fell over the two of them as they laid there. His one arm was around her and holding onto her hand and the other caressed through her long blonde hair several times as they cooled off.
He lifted their laced hands up toward him and kissed her hand, then bringing out his fingers to where each one of his came to each of her fingertip, just for the sensation before lacing them together again; a little something to pass the moment as they came down from their high.
He began to examine the way her hand fit into his own when he caught notice of her claddagh ring. It had become such a habit of his to look at it every day as he was still awaiting for her acceptance to be his girlfriend. To his surprise, her ring had been turned around to now indicate that she had finally said yes. Simon looked to it, his eyes focused there and he blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and then he began to sit up, her hand still in his.
"...Does this mean what I think it means?" Of course he knew what it meant as she had explained it, but he wanted to make sure she hadn't put it on that way by mistake.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
28 Mar 2022, 00:53
Right Where We Are
AngelFyre and@Simon Kincaid Officially Become a Couple
All AngelFyre could do in the moments afterwards was smile and think about how that had gone off so much better than she could ever have dreamed it would. She had imagined they would do a decent job of it, but her mind started racing to the possibilities in front of them if they ever truly practiced together. She was not sure what her favorite part of it was …seeing his surprise in the beginning, or his soft kiss at the end. Who was she kidding. It was the kiss. Of course it was the kiss.
Her thoughts were derailed when Simon made her chuckle, so she teased him back. “Well, yeah. I did sort of think exactly that. Do you mean to tell me dhampirs have this ridiculous amount of strength but no battery power to sustain it? Hmmmpppfff. Who knew?” Then she just laid there on her side, stretched out along what almost amounted to the length of his body with her head propped in her left hand. She knew her eyes would probably give her away, but she pursed her lips together while shaking her head and making some Tsk! Tsk! sounds. “When a girl has got to dance, Simon, a girl has got to dance. Maybe I would have been better off attending this Mid-Spring Celebration with the Energizer Bunny. You know, like you, Mav, he looks pretty cool in his shades, too, come to think of it.” She rolled her eyes and chuckled softly, but then her smile became a little more serious while looking down at her handsome date in his pink floral tie and his suit pants, her right hand now in his. “On second thought, I think I will stick with my debonair dhampir. He looks so much better in pink for one thing.” And on that point, she was not kidding. Simon looked amazing, even after she had put him through the wringer while wearing his dress up clothes. And his hair. It was still perfect. How does he manage that?
As he played with their hands and pretended to ignore her nonsense, knowing full well he knew that she knew he heard every word… she caught his quick smile when she called him Mav… she sighed contentedly and laid back down next to him, wishing she could just keep him to herself. It would honestly not break her heart to miss this Mid-Spring Celebration, especially since the Valentine’s Tea had been such an utter disaster, but it would also be a shame not to let him strut his stuff either. AngelFyre smiled. When an extrovert and an introvert pair up, concessions needed to be made, and this was one AngelFyre was happily prepared to make for him. Truth was, his stamina would be fueled and replenished tonight, and she knew she would marvel and love watching it happen. She always got the biggest kick out of watching him enjoy just about everything and everyone. Simon sucked the marrow out of life more than anyone she had ever known.
Her eyes were closed as Simon’s fingers played slowly through her hair. That normally would have lulled her, but her heart was starting to race now. It was just a matter of a few seconds now, she felt certain, before he would make his discovery. AngelFyre knew he would be happy. What she did not know was how, if at all, it would change things between them. Would he understand she was afraid that her complete and utter devotion to him was what was being offered by the turning of her ring? What if it was just too much for him? Could she keep it dialed in? Should she? These were the new struggles of her heart most recently. Would his getting what he asked for be the very thing he found he really did not want?
The moment he froze with her hand in his was the moment. No more looking at their relationship through different lenses of different magnifications. No more girlfriend and unboyfriend. No more of one of them walking… no, running… ahead of the other. This was the first charted heartbeat of Simon and AngelFyre as a bona fide couple. He sat up still holding her hand and she sat up along side him. He was still staring at her ring. She leaned her head onto his shoulder and pressed into him while nodding her head in the affirmative. “It is exactly what you think it means. AngelFyre has a boyfriend. He looks an awful lot like you, actually. Off the chart handsome.”
Last edited by AngelFyre McCubbin on 30 Mar 2022, 06:09, edited 2 times in total.
The magic is real.
28 Mar 2022, 19:47
Right Where We Are
Quite taken by @AngelFyre McCubbin
Simon watched her contently as she kept on talking, ever since she got his full and dedicated attention. At first, that attention only wavered when he thought there was a slight chance she accidentally put the ring on incorrectly, but as she led up to the fact that she most certainly had not, he found himself captivated by her every word.
Still, between her words, while he listened so intently, he was thinking about the moment in which his lips could meet hers again. He felt he knew his answer. He felt he knew what it meant. The smile upon his lips gave proof that he knew what it meant.
And it was exactly what he thought it meant.
She went on to saying that she did, in fact, now have a boyfriend and that her boyfriend bared a strong resemblance to him but before she could ramble on any more, he leaned in closer to her. Like a drought needing the rain, his lips thirsted for hers and he kissed her again.
The others could have their Blossom Ball in the Ballroom and he could stay content here in this moment, withdrawing into the solitude of the Rehearsal Room with her for the entire evening. Still, that would be selfish of him and he knew it would be far too great of a shame for her to miss her first school dance, and for him to not see her all dressed up in her dress - although she looked beyond amazing as it was.
Simon slowly drew back as reality lured him back and he smiled. There was no sadness about such a kiss ending. This was just one of many more memories in the making for Simon Kincaid and AngelFyre McCubbin.
"It takes nearly everything I have to not keep you here to myself for the evening - to shut those wooden doors and close us off from the rest of the School, but you mustn't miss your first dance. You should go get ready and I will wait for you here; unless, of course, you would like me to escort you to the Hufflepuff Common Room and back. You name your path and I will follow you anywhere."
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
30 Mar 2022, 03:39
Right Where We Are
AngelFyre Reluctantly Leaves@Simon Kincaid to Get Ready for the Ball
She had been correct. The turning of her ring towards her heart was by far the real gift to him that evening. The dance was merely the wrapping paper in which it had been presented to him. AngelFyre had wondered, worried actually, just moments before he made the discovery how things might change between them now. Her answer, a partial answer at least, came quite swiftly.
Without a word, Simon leaned over to her and kissed her. She thought she knew what it was like to be kissed by Simon. She was wrong. Dead wrong. She could have lived a lifetime… heck 100 lifetimes… and she would have been thrilled if the only kisses she had ever received from him had been like those she had grown to know and cherish over the course of the last 46 days. But this kiss? This kiss was tender and sweet, yes, but so much more than that. Tender and sweet had been the last 46 days. There was an urgency behind his kiss now, a release, and a claiming of sorts. And heat. So much heat. And it was all coming to her from her very own unbound Prometheus.
This kiss was not their past. This kiss was their future.
Anyone watching them would likely not have noticed the difference. It was not loud and sloppy. It was not overly long and drawn out. It was simply a matter of his now being free to be himself with her. It was their true spark come to life between them. AngelFyre would think back to this kiss probably thousands of times over her lifetime, and she always came to the same conclusion. Goodness knows she had never kissed a boy before Simon… nor did she ever want to kiss another… but she felt like within the span of a few moments she had gone from a grade school understanding of how wonderful her life could be to a post graduate level understanding of what lay in store, taught at a university level by a master classman.
When he slowly began to pull away, she desperately wanted to be able to open her eyes to look into his in that moment, but they would not cooperate. He probably thought her an idiot and she probably looked like one in that moment, but all she could manage was to say, “Golly,” somewhat breathlessly. Really AF?!? Golly? Yep. Golly. But oh what a Golly.
When she heard him start to speak, she found she could then open her eyes. Not thinking it possible, he looked even more handsome. Her heart smiled when Simon said he would also like to be able to secret themselves away from the world right then, too, but he did not want her to miss her first school dance. The dance! Yes, she had almost forgotten about the Ball. She really did need to put some hustle in her bustle and get down to her dorm to change. She looked at him, feeling all soft and warm inside. She knew she needed to go but oh how she wanted to stay.
AngelFyre smiled at him and reached up, brushing the back of her hand across his cheek, and then let it lazily move to his lips, tracing the bottom one slowly. She sighed deeply and reluctantly responded to his question. “No. You stay here. You will be less bored, I think,” and her head nodded in the direction of the piano. “I will meet you here shortly.” And then he stood up and took both her hands into his and helped her off the floor.
“I will not be long. But there is one more thing I would like to do once I get back here and before we officially head off to the Ball. The last time we were in here you sang a little bit of ‘Heart and Soul’ to me. Will you sing a smile for me, Simon, and do me the honor of singing it to me while we dance in here one more time this evening? It would make my evening complete before it even begins, I assure you.”
And with that, she casually took his loosened tie in hand and both tightened it and then straightened it out for him, making certain it was completely tucked beneath his shirt collar. "There. The personification of utter perfection stands before me as I live and breathe." She looked deeply into his eyes, and she meant it. She knew he was not perfect, of course. But his imperfections were all a part of him, and Simon Ezra Kincaid was imperfectly perfect to, and for, AngelFyre Afton McCubbin.
Last edited by AngelFyre McCubbin on 2 Apr 2022, 12:57, edited 4 times in total.
The magic is real.
1 Apr 2022, 21:55
Right Where We Are
One final dance before the dance with @AngelFyre McCubbin
"Dance with you one more dance before the dance and after our dance we just had? - I believe I can do that," he said, stepping closer to her and closing that gap between them. Yes, that was a lot of 'dances' in one sentence. Sometimes Simon Kincaid could be rather romantic, and other times, erring on the silly side.
It was much better this way with the closeness between them and he brought one hand around her and rested it on the small of her back while his other hand took hold of her own. "Besides, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I denied my girlfriend such a request?"
Simon smiled to her and began to sway with her, not doing any intricate sort of moves like the two did before but then again this moment was dwindling down for them, starting a transition from them to the Blossom Ball.
"Heart and soul,
I feel in love with you,
heart and soul,
the way a fool would do - madly..."
And he paused now to spin with her on that last word and smiled. He was no AngelFyre McCubbin when it came to dancing but that didn't mean he couldn't still have fun with it.
"...because you held me tight
and stole a kiss in the night,"
he brought himself so close to her, so close that his lips were almost to hers but he just tapped his forehead to hers, not allowing his lips to touch hers. Yes, he was toying with her, but not to be cruel but rather build anticipation.
"Heart and soul,
I beg to be adored,
lost control, and tumbled overboard, - gladly.
That magic night we kissed,
there in the moon mist."
Simon brought his lips to hers sweetly for a soft kiss, pulling away rather quickly because he knew their time in that moment was short. She needed time to go change into her attire for the Blossom Ball and he wouldn't deny her that.
"Oh but your lips were thrilling,
much too thrilling,
Never before were mine so strangely willing.
"But now I see what one embrace can do,
look at me, it's got my loving you - madly.
That little kiss you stole
held all my heart and soul."
And he led her down into a dip at the very end and brought her back up. "Go on. You go get ready for the Ball. I'll be here with the piano to keep me company." There was no rush. She could take all the time she needed.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)