A Side Alley

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Her face felt flush and warm, and she stepped out into the darkening streets of Hogsmeade, tugging her hood up over her head as she moved quickly along, trying to find somewhere quiet and out of sight for them. Stopping temporarily in the covered doorway of an empty shop, she pulled him in after her. "What was-- why did you--- I thought you didn't---" Nothing came out in a whole sentence anymore. "Sorry, I... you probably think I'm stupid," she mumbled, turning and starting to walk off. She had a hard time accepting that people would want her, after being rejected by so many people over and over and over again. It wasn't that she'd never been snogged or even shagged before, it had certainly happened, but it was rare, and not for a while now.

He didn't get a good look at her face as she pulled back, his own eyes darting down to her shattered glass. When she glanced up again he tried to read her expression, attempting to figure out whether the guilt was from the kiss or the glass, he hoped the glass. Before he had really processed all those thoughts she was leading him out of the bar, her small hand wrapped around his yet again. Following her out he left his hood down, one hand holding the prop scythe still and the other clasped in hers. When she stopped he didn't even get a chance to get a word in before she was mumbling some half completed questions then calling herself stupid and walking away. As he walked off he did the most logical thing at the time and swung the scythe around to wrap around her waist and pull her back to him, "Hey, don't walk off. I don't know why I did that but I did." Fortunately the logical part of his brain caught up around then before he started asking stupid questions. Instead he reached out with his free hand and pushed her hood back, the pole of the prop crossing her back and holding her in place. Now that he could see her face again he still couldn't read her expression, "Are you okay?" He probably shouldn't have kissed her while she was drunk.

She hadn't gotten more than a few steps away before something hard caught her around the middle and hauled her back. She turned around and looked up at Walden as he pulled her back toward him using his fake scythe. "That would have sliced me clean in two if it was real, you know. Then you'd have my soggy guts to clean up before anyone found us." A half-hearted smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. She looked up at him as he pushed her hood back, moonlight making her blink once the shadow her hood had created left her face. She didn't know when it had become night time, but figured it was somewhere after the five shots and before she pulled him out of the bar. Time was a fuzzy thing with alcohol in her system. She felt his scythe's pole behind her, keeping her here. Figuring he wouldn't do that unless he really did want her here, she shrugged at his question, attempting a smile as she drunkenly stumbled through her mind's dizzying wanderings. "Yeah. I'm alright." She studied the way he was looking at her, his body language and the way he was holding her here in front of him like he really didn't want her to leave. Maybe she had overreacted. Maybe it wasn't so crazy that someone could want her. It had happened before, couldn't it happen again? Acting on impulse, she leaned up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his very timidly, dropping back down to stand normally again a second later. "I'm sorry for acting like that. If you want to go back to the Hog's Head now, we could?" She secretly hoped he didn't want to, for it was rather nice here just the two of them.

He couldn't stop a small grim from playing over his lips when she pulled back from the gentle kiss. When she asked if he wanted to head back he smirked, switching the pole for an arm around her waist, "I don't think we should head back, I don't think you need anything more to drink." Slowly pulling he started walking them further into the town, "How does a nice walk up to the shrieking shack sound to you?" He didn't really wait for a reply as he kept the pressure on her back keeping her walking with him.