Official? PV Percival Gray Finished

It had been a rough year to say the least, not only had the hag slug tortured him for months, but everything around him was falling apart. Along with the daily brutality the slug brought with it, deaths in the family had also brought him to rock bottom. His grandmother, a person who he deeply respected unexpectedly passed away. A mixture of being sick to the bone and pure sadness really took him to breaking point.

To make matters worse, the girl he loved most of all Santario had also been suffering from the hags lust for agony on the students. At one point she totally hated his guts, and thought his sudden departure from Hogwarts was him leaving her to rot. That wasn't the case at all, Gray truly cared for the girl and made it his mission to fulfil his promise. Thankfully, with the help of others he did just that. If he lost her, he wouldn't know what else to do.

Walking along in the warm sunlight of the courtyard, he caught sight of the pretty girl sitting in one of the arches enjoying a book peacefully. Seeing San back to normal shot life back into his dying heart, and he wouldn't stop until the girl he admired most was the happiest she ever was. In his hand was a box of chocolates, as well as a freshly picked black orchid which was attached to the top of the confectionary's. Chocolates and flowers always seemed to do the trick when it came to getting on their good side.

Coming up behind her he slowly leaned up against the wall "What's a girl like you doing here?" he said softly, trying his best not to make her jump. Gray gently squeezed her shoulder and stood beside her with a warm smile, the gift hidden behind his back in secrecy.

"Guess what I have behind my back" he said in amusement, only revealing her gift when she chose to answer his question.

Attire

Interacting| @Percival Gray Mentioning| -

Outfit Reducio

Words of fantasy flew before her eyes, and she snuggled down and read her book. The words on the pages took her to places where hags didn’t exist, and somehow the good guys always won. She would not consider herself a good guy, but those were semantics to be argued on a different day, time, and space.

She found herself breathing slowly and deeply, bringing in as much fresh air into her lungs as she could while, for once, enjoying the sunshine on her exposed skin. Though she wouldn’t be alone for too terribly long, unaware of Percival's presence as he positioned himself against the wall behind her. It would not be until his voice reached her ears that she tilted her chin up and angled her head back slightly to look at him from her position.

Sparkling sapphires lit up with the smile that graced her lips as he gently squeezed her shoulder. “Well, it looks like I am about to be guessing what a boy like you might have behind his back.” She turned herself to look at him properly, but he had well-hidden what he held.

She stared up at him with a quizzical look as she bit her lower lip in thought. “Well, it certainly is not a pony.” She teased him finally after some time of thinking, but she honestly couldn’t think of what it would be. She wasn’t used to getting gifts, not really, not like this. So whatever he had behind his back, she was clueless. “Okay, a serious one, is it… A book?”

But she would be wrong, and she would gasp when he presented his gift to her. Part of it stung; seeing the flower, she remembered what she said to him in their dorms that night. About how stupid flowers couldn’t protect anyone. But, it was good that he presented her with the flower. She needed to learn how to heal from that; they both did. “It is stunning, Percival! If I remember where they are correct, you must have had to go pretty far to get this one.” She positively beamed up at him. Despite everything that had happened over the past few months, he was still the one person who made her feel safe, secure, and, most importantly, like things weren’t her fault.

"You really did not have to give me anything, but I love it. Thank you!"

Percival smiled and slowly shook his head to her guesses, only choosing to present it once she had given up on her her attempts. He slowly revealed the flower and chocolates, curiously gazing at her face to see her reaction. Gray wasn't sure on when she felt on the Orchid, but it was soon apparent that she had a special thing in her heart for them. The smile on her face, the way she was relaxed, that's how he remembered the old San. Whole heartedly he was just happy to be around the girl again and bring happiness to her.

"You're right. I had to get up early this morning to go on a long trek towards the borders off the grounds. It took time, but it was well worth the hassle to give them to you" Gray said gladly before walking past San and sitting opposite her in the window, one leg hanging loosely while the other was perched up with him. He looked straight at San silently for a few moments and blushed, not just from her beauty but from a burning question he was meaning to ask.

"Well, there is a big reason why I got you those too" he said, slowly shuffling closer and gently grasping her hand if she let him "For as long as we've known each other we have never been to a ball together. The annual ball is coming up, so would you be willing to take a troublesome boy like myself and dance the night away?" he joked this time, his light blue eyes staring at hers with a calm smile.

"Is breá liom tú..." I love you

Interacting| @Percival Gray Mentioning| -

Outfit Reducio

Santario gave him a slight look of disbelief when he admitted he had gotten up early and trekked all that way. “You madman.” She teased, accompanied by a slight grin she was trying to suppress. Her eyes followed him as he moved past her to take a seat. As his eyes settled on her, a flush crept across her cheeks, her eyes falling to the flowers she held. During their moment of silence, a world of things went through her mind. She remembered his name being called before hers in the sorting ceremony, but she never paid him any mind. They were both the quiet and heads down type. They performed well in classes, perhaps even sometime together before they ever thought of each other as just another body in the room trying to compete for the best grades.

Then came the first time they ever really mattered in one another’s life; a Blossom Ball. A thrown plate, cross words, and a distraction. From there on, he became the boy that pissed off the mosp, and she became the hot head with a foul mouth. Interactions after that would have been terse at best. Then came that one moment during summer where they met again on happenstance only to find they had something in common. A lot of things in common, actually, and suddenly Percival Gray went from the boy who made a mistake to someone who held her interest. Interest grew to tentative friendship and the start of learning to look beyond one lousy interaction.

His voice pulled her out of the thoughts that swam around her head, her eyes snapping to his face. “Oh?” As Percival reached for her hand, she took it, allowing him to grasp it, giving him a quizzical look. The moment the word ball came out of his mouth, her eyebrows raised, eyes widened slightly. A formal ask set a smile on her face, but before she could answer, he spoke words to her that she hadn’t heard since her parents were alive. They were thirteen years old… Well, maybe he was fourteen; she honestly didn’t know. She didn’t know his birthday; she had never asked. Could they really feel something that could be labeled love? Then again, they were teenagers; they had the world of time to learn everything they needed.

Her eyes flitted between his only a few seconds of silence hung between them. “Yes, I will go to the ball with you… Mo Chroí.” Mo Chroí was a sentiment directly translated meant my heart, but it meant so much more. It meant he was her heart, strength, life, soul, and love. A sentiment that could not truly be defined, but it was what her father called her mother, and if there was anyone in her life that would make her think of a happy relationship of any kind, it was Percival Gray.

Percival, for as long as he could remember had not been so nervous in his life. He was the kind of boy to not have those feelings in the slightest, but when it came to asking a girl he loved so much to the ball things was very much different. What if she said no after everything they went through? did she truly love him back? that was only what San could decide. The boy glared out his counterpart with uncertainty, the edge of his fingertips lightly stroking her hand in anticipation. Then, the answer he craved was finally revealed.

Gray seemed to let out a sigh of relief as he offered San the widest smile he could muster. She did love him back, wholeheartedly by that fact. They had been through hell and back this year, so her accepting a little bit of peace with him meant more than anything "You don't know how much that means to me..." he said with a slight frown from the thought of how close he was to losing her entirely. Now that everything was right in their lives, they could finally move on, together.

"I was so scared San, at one point I thought I was going to lose you. But I always knew, deep down you were always fighting to keep yourself with us. You never gave up, and neither did I" Percival said in a lowered tone, his tired eyes filling with tears as he stared in sheer relief at the San he always wanted. Hesitantly, a hand reaches up to her cheek and places it there reflectively looking at her face with joy.

Then, slowly but surely his face starts to get closer to hers. His eyes fluttered while his lips got closer, a move that would make this moment a core memory for the rest of their lives.

A first kiss...

Interacting| @Percival Gray Mentioning| -

Outfit Reducio

San smiled softly at him as he expressed his relief. Was there ever a moment where they could have been just friends? Yes, there was, but it was only brief before their relationship changed from friendship to more, even if they had refused to admit it themselves. Whether they lasted and weathered out the years, only time could tell, but for now, they had each other.

Her eyes dropped and a pang of guilt spread through her chest because she wasn’t always fighting to return to them. There were times when she had given up and almost begged for the transformation to come sooner than it was. She had convinced herself at one point that it would be better that way in the end. That was something she would never tell him; there were just certain things the boy never needed to know.

Her eyes met his once more. “I know you did not, and there is nothing I can do to properly repay you for that.” Her sentence would trickle into silence as his hand reached her face. He stared at her with an intensity she could not place at that moment as her eyes flitted between his. His hand felt hot against her cheek as a flush slowly crept across her face. Her heart raced, and it felt like every nerve in her body was alight. This was similar to how she felt last summer, and while there was dirt near enough for one of them to back out and throw at the other, neither did.

When his lips met hers, Santario’s eyes closed, and the book in her lap slid to the ground as her hand raised and rested on his upper arm. She felt like she was floating or melting, maybe a combination of both. After a moment, she pulled away, her hand landing on the chocolate box, raising it between them. “You should help me eat these.” She flustered, her lips turned up into an awkward smile. With their first kiss, her first in general, the game of cat and mouse was over.

When their lips connected Gray felt as if something had clicked at that moment. Santario was a girl he couldn't stop thinking about anymore, all he wanted was to make her happy and stick with her through thick and thin. She was one of the few people that brought a side that rarely showed, one that showed his true kind and caring nature compared to the regular serious and cold he was accustomed to. In ways, San was just one of a kind.

His heart pumped through his chest as they embraced each other, only seemingly slowing down when San decided to withdraw after a few seconds. Gray looked at her quietly with his cheeks bright red, a shy smile soon appearing when her hand rested on the chocolate box "Oh, uh sure!" Gray replied with a stumble of his words. Right now, he felt on top of the world. Percival never thought a girl would take him for who he was and lower his guard, but since day one San had done that and then some.

Percival let San have first dibs before lowering his hand down to pick one out himself. Placing it in his mouth he gave San a warm smile as they silently dug through the treats together.

Things had changed, this time for the better. It was safe to say things were official...