Who: Kenzie and Bedivere When: Feb 14, evening, after Bedivere's talk with Gawain Where: Valentine's Ball What: Talking, dancing, general cuteness Rating/Warnings: None Status: Closed/Complete
Kenzie’s attention had been seeking out Bedivere despite the crowded Great Hall ever since she had arrived at the dance. She’d been thinking a lot since she had confronted him in the common room two weeks prior, and she was pretty confident with her decision. She hadn’t so much as given any of the boys who had approached her a second glance other than those she would consider to be pretty good friends. She wasn’t sure if it was the dress she picked out, or if boys really flocked to her in such numbers on a regular basis. It was hard to remember that kind of thing when she was so actively avoiding it. There was a short period of time where she couldn’t find him anymore and she was a little disappointed as she briefly wondered if he had left without saying a word to her, without their promised dance. It was when he appeared again that she decided she would approach him first and she made her way over to where he stood. “Hi,” she greeted when she was close enough. “I thought you might have left.”
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Bedivere sighed and was in the process of straightening up his dove grey vest, then smoothing over his matching slacks. In fact even his shirt was dove grey, though his shoes were black and his tie a dark wine red. He thought that he looked rather spiffy for the evening, even if his little run after Gawain and subsequent talk led to him getting a tad mussed. Not that he cared, really.
When he heard the ‘hi’ he grinned before looking up, already knowing just who it was. “I did for a moment. I had to check on my brother.” He stood up straight and took his time looking her over. That dress could kill. “His date went a little south.”
Reaching out he took her hand and brought it up to his lips, bowing over it a little. “Cariad, you look gorgeous.”
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Kenzie couldn’t help but grin as Bedivere looked her over. That had been the effect she was hoping for with him when she had picked out the dress. “Thank you. You’re looking pretty good yourself.” He looked more than good she thought, and she had noticed it since the first time she had seen him earlier.
“Is he okay?” She asked, concerned. It was bad enough to have a bad experience with a date, but she felt like the occasion made it somehow worse. No one liked to have problematic experiences on Valentine’s day.
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Bedivere smirked cockily, unable to keep from being pleased she liked how well he cleaned up as well. Being a boy of chaos like he was, it certainly wasn’t often when he spiffed up.
“Yeah, he’ll be alright.” Bedivere gave a sigh and a small smile. There was a lot going on there, with Gawain’s secret and all. It made this situation very difficult to handle because of its delicacy. It did not, though, need to include Kenzie, or affect their time together. He then shook his head and smiled a bit more and slipped an arm around Kenzie’s waist to pull her close and took her hand. “Anyways, now that I am back, I owe you a dance.”
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Kenzie nodded. That was good that Gawain would be alright, and hopefully it guaranteed that Bedivere would not be running off again, at least not soon. “You do. It was promised, and you can’t break a promise.” Her tone was light and teasing, as happy as she generally tried to be. Her free hand moved to his shoulder as he pulled her to dance.
She leaned her head against his chest, as she had done in the hallway a few weeks prior, just letting him hold her close for a while as they danced. She was acutely aware of the looming conversation that would be happening, but was afraid of mentioning it to a certain degree, in fear that it might not turn out as well as she had hoped. Still, if she wanted to make changes, she was probably going to have to start here no matter how nervous about it she was. “I’ve done a lot of thinking...I don’t know if you’d rather hear that now or later.”
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Bedivere grinned at her words, amused as he always seemed to be with her. She just always seemed to make him want to smile. She was just that kind of person. A person that could make anyone want to smile, or laugh, at a mere whim. It was part of what had drawn him to her initially. “And this is one promise I do not want to break,” he said, his face softening a bit as he spoke the words.
He held her close as they began the dance steps to the song playing. Her head against his chest, the smell of her shampoo and perfume, the press of her soft body against his… He closed his eyes for a bit, just simply enjoying the moment, glad she was not looking at him to see it. He was still holding himself realistically, not expecting her to want to come back to him.
His eyes opened when she spoke and he glanced down at the top of her red head. “You can tell me whenever you want to.”
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She stayed quiet for a moment, trying to gather some courage as well as actually get her words together as she hadn’t actually put any sort of speech together at all. She knew she didn’t really need one, but she wanted to be persuasive enough to convince him that this was what she really wanted. She shut her eyes then so she couldn’t see anybody else and she could only feel him there and how close he was. When she did finally speak, it was just loud enough for him to hear her over the music and their peers. “I’m pretty sure I’ve thought about this every which way, I even tried to get an outside opinion which proved to not be as helpful as I had originally hoped.”
There was a very brief pause before she convinced herself that she had to do this much at least, no matter the outcome, especially now that she had already mentioned it. “I stand by what I said before. I want to try again. I’ll try harder to not flirt with anybody, really try.” She opened her eyes and raised her head so that she could look at him, a sort of fear and vulnerability in her eyes that wasn’t normally there. “There might be a learning curve. I might not realize that something I’m doing bothers you, but the second you tell me I’ll work as hard as I can to change it. It means I need to start dealing with the painful things instead of avoiding them, but one day I’ll need to do that anyway. I think I might be able to do that with your help...” She trailed off, doing the best she could to keep eye contact no matter how nervous that made her feel in that moment.
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Kenzie stole his heart yet again when she looked up at him with those beautiful eyes of hers. She looked so vulnerable. The kiss he had given her during the snowball fight had left him with much to think on and hope for, especially since he wanted to kiss her more, and kiss her properly.
He brought the hand he held up and placed it upon his shoulder, his now free hand coming to lightly touch and then cup her cheek. Merlin, he still had feelings for her, and he had fallen a little deeper for her during this moment. “Then I’ll help. We’ll learn together.” He then leaned in and kissed her properly with a gentle but lingering kiss. “Sweet Circe, I have missed you.”
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It took her a moment to process his words, though as soon as she did his lips were against hers and she was kissing him back, and really in that moment she was just very happy with everything. It had been silly being afraid of his response to her words when she knew he still had feelings for her, but somehow she had rationalized its existence. She had convinced herself that something might have changed in those past two weeks, but she was very glad that it hadn’t.
“I missed you too. I just didn’t realize it properly until very recently.” She kissed him again, happy to be able to give into that impulse without having to overthink things. “Thank you for giving me a second chance. I’m just sorry you had to wait so long for it.”
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He almost said ‘I would have waited even longer’, but that was just a bit too mushy for him. Instead he had both hands on her waist suddenly, and then lifted her up and spun around, laughing as he did so. Now this was more his style. He then held her firmly against him and kissed her again, this time with her feet up off the ground and held up just a touch taller than he was. He didn’t give a damn who here saw and commented on it.
“Kenzie, cariad, be my girl?” he asked, out loud for others to hear, to make it official. Despite the drama with his brother and Gawain’s date, he was very happy with how the night turned out.
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She couldn’t help but laugh when he picked her up to spin her. The doubt, the fear, the insecurity, all of that was long gone now. Their personalities had meshed so well as friends, she was convinced it could only be better now that they were together again. His playfulness helped her mostly unending happiness and she wasn’t sure how she had ever been able to give this up in the first place. She wouldn’t let herself dwell on that though, she had done enough of that in the past two weeks and there was nothing she could do to change things anyway.
“Yes,” she replied, nodding with a grin on her face. She couldn’t help but be incredibly happy with how the night had turned out.