InsaneJournal

who: Nate Bird & Tabitha Ogletree
what: Being stupid cute, stop it, it’s gross.
where: In the Bear Cave. Which is also their corner of the library.
when: Wednesday, December 7.
warnings: Just don’t read it if you already have cavities.

They called their corner of the library the Bear Cave. Respectful, well-behaved non-Ebonhides were welcome, but it kind of seemed like it was mostly the bears who regularly inhabited these most-cushioned of chairs, the least-sticky of tables, the furthest-away-from-loud-Azurcrests of areas. Armed with Hermeticism notes and a travel mug of coffee (which he promised Petrichor daily he wouldn’t spill, and which he had to prove daily hadn’t been), Nate had holed himself up in the Bear Cave for the last—dear God, how had it already been three hours? He’d missed lunch. Whoops.
Nate ran his hands through his hair and gently shoved his Hermeticism textbook aside, giving his eyes a much needed rest from the tiny type and complex figures. He’d heard some people got senioritis and stopped caring so much about their grades in their senior year, but that just didn’t seem to be happening. Leaning his head back and covering his eyes for just a moment, Nate tried not to fall asleep where he was sitting (again, even though, according to library rules, this isn’t your dorm room, sleep in your own bed). Which, as it turned out, was kind of a difficult thing to do.

Not long released from the infirmary, Tabitha was still pretty miserable. She was pissed about her row with Cricket, pissed at boys in general for being confusing, and pissed at herself for not being more like the cool, IDGAF Azurcrests who were lolling about lazily in their section of the library as she headed on down, looking to find Nate. She had to get things off her chest.

As predicted, Nate was in the library, in his usual corner. Frankly, Tabs was glad their other friends weren’t around, because if she was told off for interrupting his study for his million and one classes, she didn’t know if she could take it. She already felt inferior to others for not being as smart and not having as many close friends, after all.

“Um, hi?” she greeted him awkwardly, lifting a delicate hand in salutation.

Nate jerked up, startled by the sudden appearance of someone while he was almost definitely not sleeping. "Oh! Hey!" he said maybe a little too loudly after a second, seeing that it was Tabitha who had shown up while he was absolutely not falling asleep in the library. Running his hand through his hair again, Nate rested his elbow back on the table, super casually. "What, uh, brings you here?"

“I, um, wanted to talk to you about something” Tabitha asked hesitantly, eyes scanning over the books that surrounded Nate, wondering if there was much point in talking to him if his mind was elsewhere, and if she would later get a yelling at for being a distraction. Oh well. “But, it looks like you’re really busy over here… should I come back later?”

"Oh--what? No, no, this is, uh, this is just homework," he said with a little half laugh. "I should give my eyes a break anyways, it's all starting to look the same." Rubbing his eyes lightly, as if to illustrate how tired they were, Nate cleared his throat. "So, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?"

“Oh no, that’s not good” Tabitha mused, making a sympathetic noise as she sat down in a chair opposite him. “Mr Hightower always says taking a decent break helps your brain to recover, so your studying is more effective and you remember more” she added helpfully, her Head of House’s words of wisdom always something she tried to live by.

She bit her lip, though, wondering how best to broach the subject. This was not going to be awkward. Nope. Not at all.

“Cricket told me something, and, I dunno. It didn’t seem like it was true, but even though we’re kind of mad with each other right now, she’s not a liar” Tabitha mumbled, not her usual eloquently put self.

Nate cocked his head, eyebrows ever so slightly furrowed. As the occasionally clueless boy that he was, with his life sometimes more or less dictated to him by his best friends, he hadn't realized Tabitha and Cricket were mad at each other right now. "Nah, she's usually not," he said, knowing Cricket would probably scoff at his qualifer of usually. "I mean--not that she has a habit of lying or anything, that, uh, came out--anyway. What'd she say?"

Tabitha charitably ignored his stumbling, not wanting to embarrass him any further than she was likely about to. Wrapping a strand of hair around her finger, twiddling it as it had worked itself loose from her bun, she sighed. Time to bite the bullet.

“Amortentia” she said simply, waiting for the penny to drop.

Nate choked, like, a little bit when she said that. Technically she could be talking about a lot of things when she just said Amortentia. Like. Maybe she was interested in the theory behind it. For a project.

Except that wouldn't have anything to do with Cricket telling her something, unless that something was, "Nate once competently brewed an Amortentia," and that didn't seem like a something that would require a talk in the library. So that meant there were very few options remaining.

"Ha, oh, um, that?" he asked, though it wasn't really much of a question. He bit his lip and looked down at the pen in his hand, willing himself not to start nervously clicking it. "I can only imagine what, uh, Cricket had to say."

Tabitha tilted her head and looked at him, her chest oddly full. While she felt distinctly like he was embarrassed by her at the moment, there was still something incredibly endearing about the way he just wasn't being a cocky shit about this whole thing. She alternatively wished both that he'd come right out and say what he meant and that she could do the same.

“Like this?” she asked, holding out her arm towards him, proffering her wrist. She'd just come from showering after a practice, so the lotion on it was both fresh and definitely pepperminty enough to ‘smell like candy canes taste’.

Nate coughed a little bit and ducked his head to hide what was sure to be an embarrassing blush creeping across his cheeks as he put two and two together and realized just what Cricket had gone and blabbed to Tabitha. “I, uh, I guess I’m caught, huh?” he half-joked. Not that he necessarily regretted the fact that Cricket had turned detective (as was 100% expected) followed by matchmaker (more like 96% expected), more that he was caught off guard. And never knew what to say to people even when he was caught on guard.
“I mean, well,” he looked up, determined to at least look her in the eyes when he tried to talk to her. “I mean I like spending time around you—with you—I mean, you know—” Wait, what was he trying to say?

Tabitha couldn’t help but smile a little as the blush began to appear on Nate’s cheeks. It was a warm, shy smile that probably looked even more coy than Tabs felt right now. She’d felt so rotten around boys lately that the stirring flips her stomach was doing right now were something she was sure she’d forgotten how to feel.

Her grin spread a little wider as he stumbled. What hetero girl wouldn’t when she knew the feeling of having a cute boy on the run like that? It was a rush she took full advantage of, as she moved to sit next to him properly and leaned in to kiss his cheek affectionately. “I like spending time with you, too” she confessed. “And it was great getting to dance with you at Halloween.”

Thank God Tabitha knew how to get words out of her mouth better than Nate did. He over thought and worried and second guessed himself, and he was honestly a little in awe of how Tabs was able to just act sometimes. Like that—like that right there, moving to sit next to him, kissing him on the cheek, while Nate tried to adjust the look on his face to resemble something closer to a warm smile than the awkward and dumbfounded choking sensation that was currently filling his head.

“I did, too, I really did.” His words came in a rush, barely putting themselves in the right order as they spilled out. “And I’m glad you did because—” Haha, never mind about those words spilling out without his control, because now he was hesitating again, not really knowing the exact way to word it. “Uh, I mean, because I don’t have a date to the winter formal, and, I, uh, do…you?” (So smooth.)

Fortunately for Tabitha, even if her mother did not expect the years of training in etiquette and deportment to be used in quite this manner, it certainly came in handy right now. Ogletree (well, Gouch she supposed) women knew how to flatter the person they wanted to flatter, and Tabs knew that in Nate’s case, going overboard might actually kill him. And then Cricket would probably murder her.

A tender beam now formed from Tabitha’s lips, all teeth and twinkle in the eye. Her delight was genuine, and it showed. “As it happens, I don’t” she sighed, having to exaggerate a little as she tried to sound serious. “I just don’t think anyone wants to ask me.”

Nate’s smile widened more, and he tried really hard to hide how nervous he was. Which was easy, because Tabs was smiling at him, and she was nice and not pressuring him or expecting anything out of him. At least it didn’t seem that way. He took a breath. “That’s kind of lucky though, you know?” he said, biting the inside of his lip as he spoke. “I mean, for me. Because, I mean,” every time Nate said “I mean” he tried to kick himself, he was supposed to be more eloquent than this, “I’d like to go with you. If—if you want to go with me. I mean,” kick, “do you want to go with me?”

Tabs’ head was lowered, a shy smile coming his way as she looked at him from under her perfectly done eyelashes. She was definitely pleased with where this conversation was going.

Lifting her face upwards towards him, she grinned. “I’d love to go with you” she smiled. “Really.”

Nate’s mouth was dry and his hands were getting clammy (which he tried to nonchalantly wipe off on his sleeve, because he is just so cool), but the grin on his face was easy when he heard Tab’s answer. He would be…pretty much just as nervous, if not more so, at the actual dance, but that was Future Nate’s problem, and Present Nate was feeling okay. Okay enough to make Future Nate feel kind of okay, too.

“That’s the best news I’ve got all day,” he said. “I really can’t wait.”

“Only all day? What sort of news have you been getting all week?” she teased, unable to help the grin.

“I’m looking forward to it already”, she stated simply, throwing caution to the wind and leaning forward to peck him gently on the lips, getting up and walking away with only a grin and wink over her shoulder.