will power (alayna)

This wasn't Lien's scene. He wasn't into social functions, nor was he into things like dancing. When he had learnt of the dance, however, he realised that Alayna was probably expecting to go. He could have suggested that she'd gone with friends and used the time to study quietly in the empty common room, but he also didn't like the idea of those particular friends getting too friendly. So, he'd asked her. And there they were.

Where was Alayna anyway? He'd been at the thing for a while now, following Voclain's announcement about the Quidditch game, and still hadn't seen her. That put him in a very grumpy mood. Perhaps he was supposed to meet her somewhere before entering? He didn't know. These things were very alien to him. He just hoped she'd appear soon so that the evening could go by quickly, and he could get back to his work.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna was in no rush to the dance. She always enjoyed fashionably late, especially if it were due to a fashion crisis. After wrestling with her hair for about 2 hours, she arrived at the dance. The red color of the dress looked good against her olive tone skin and her hair stayed up in the style she had finally accomplished. She saw Lien and smiled as she approached him, "Hi."

@Lien Chang

"Hi..."

Although she looked good, he was still a bit annoyed about having to wait as long as he did.

"You're not wearing the-" The dress that ended up on her dormitory floor while they got to business. "You're wearing a different dress. It, er, looks nice." It did look nice. His brain immediately went to the gutter, so he had to pull himself out of it.

"I... don't know what we're supposed to do at this thing, Alayna." At least he should just admit to that early so she didn't get disappointed.

@Alayna Nott

"I'm sorry I took so long. My hair was being a monster. And it was just a lot of chaos between all the girls." She said, recalling the trials she had faced in the dorm room just to get to a mirror. She raised an eyebrow when he noticed she was wearing a new dress, "Well yeah. You'd already seen the other one. I gotta keep you on your toes, don't I?" She asked, doing a little turn to let him see the whole dress. "It's alright. I mean it's a dance. You dance and you talk and you just have a good time."

@Lien Chang

Great. Three things he wasn't good at.

"I can't really dance," he said hurriedly, flushing. The idea of even trying to brought him into a cold sweat. It was just... horrific. "So if you don't mind, we can skip that part."

He looked around to see if anyone else was dancing. The only thing he saw was James talking to... Ptolemy. Then Ptolemy looked in their direction. Lien instinctively, and possessively, held Alayna's hand.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna frowned a bit when he said he couldn't dance. That was a shame. But it was fine. If she truly wanted to dance, she could always steal her brother from Lukas for a song or two, "Yeah that's fine." Suddenly, he was holding her hand. She looked up at him and followed where his eyes were looking. Ptolemy. She smiled and waved at her friend with her free hand. She noticed that he was talking to James and her hand quickly lowered.

@Lien Chang

"Come on," he muttered, tugging her hand so that she was out of Ptolemy's line of sight. James looked like he'd made an effort. He looked quite smart, actually. That wasn't helpful to think about though: he was talking to Ptolemy Rowle, and it looked like they were talking about them. Not a nice thought.

"So, you missed the announcement. There's going to be a scrimmage match - Hufflepuff verses Gryffindor."

Perhaps she cared about such things, he didn't know. It was just good to move the subject away from Rowle, just in case she started talking about him.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna stumbled a bit when he pulled her but she managed to regain her balance. She huffed as she followed him. She still didn't get why he hated Ptolemy so much. Yet he was all buddy buddy with James. Then again, he didn't know any of the drama going down between her and James. He was so smart. But so naive at times. ,"Hufflepuff, huh? That'll be an easy match. An easy Gryffindor victory." She said, her voice filled with confidence.

@Lien Chang

"I'll probably be supporting Gryffindor too. Usually I would support Hufflepuff, I suppose. But you and James are in Gryffindor house, and I'd be a bad friend not to give him some support."

He realised that he'd never really talked about his growing friendship with James to Alayna. He knew that they had kissed in the past, but apart from that he knew nothing about the kind of relationship they had. He just supposed it was a sort of friendship. Either way, it felt good to talk about something casual than thinking about where they were and the formality attached to it.

"I saw that you were one of the cheerleaders."

Lien smiled at her.

@Alayna Nott

Alaynas gaze narrowed as he mentioned being friends with James? Um, what the fuck? Since when? Something about that rubbed her the wrong way. The frown on her face told something was wrong, but she didn't want to get into that at the dance. "Yeah I'm a cheer leader. It's fun and the outfits are super cute." She said, smiling back up at him. She stood on her toes and kissed him. She didn't know why, she just wanted to.

@Lien Chang

The sudden death stare took him completely off guard. Had he said something offensive without meaning to? Had he stepped on her foot by accident or something?

"Oh, er, yeah... It's a nice outfit." Okay... Was that stuff before just his imagination? She kissed him, and Lien was staring at her. He smiled slightly. "I can't believe the Ravenclaws have a male cheerleader, though. Especially one who... Isn't a Cernunnos Largo."

@Alayna Nott

She smiled against the kiss before pulling away. She looked vker to where Ptolemy and James had been and noticed James was no longer there. She frowned and gave Ptolemy a look from across the room. They had plans and nothing was going to throw those plans off track. "oh my god. I was thinking the same thing. I did not picture Tremlett being a Cheerleader. He's gonna be so obsessed with the girls he's gonna end up dropping someone."

@Lien Chang

She was looking over at Rowle again. Lien frowned. He was getting a little annoyed, to say the least. He was sure the chat about Lazar was mainly just to keep up conversation, for the sake of conversation...

"Am I boring you?"

@Alayna Nott
,

Alayna looked at him with a raised eyebrow"Did I say you were? Trust me. If I was bored you would know. I would either tell you or just simply walk away, Lien. I just got alot going on right now." She frowned and looked down at her shoes, "Am I boring you?" Is that why he asked? Was he bored? How was that possible? He was with her. "I mean, if you are you can go chase down Potter if you want since you two are such good friends." Her temper was starting to show and she tried to control it.

@Lien Chang

"Er - no - you're not..."

He flushed in embarrassment, not wanting her to cause a scene between them. That's all he needed. What did she have going on exactly? Why didn't he know about it?

"James?" Why was she suddenly talking about him? "What? Why would you... I'm here with you, aren't I? I just wanted to enjoy this night as much as I possibly could, seeing as it was so important to you to go. So here I am - with you!"

@Alayna Nott

Alayna pouted and looked away from him. He was right. He was there with her. Isn't that all that mattered, "I'm sorry. I just... I had an argument with him the other night. And you got brought up. And it's just a giant mess. I don't want you getting caught up in it, though." She said, looking up at him, the pout still on her face and her eyes had an innocent gleam to them, "I just don't get along with him anymore. And I didn't know you were friends with him."

@Lien Chang

He wondered why he'd enter a disagreement between her and James, but thinking about it too much caused his heart to beat rather fast for some reason.

Lien was a sucker for her large, innocent eyes. Being angry with her was difficult when you were looking at those eyes.

"Sorry to hear that," Just how much did they not get along? It seemed like they could hate each other now or something. "Well... Yeah, James and I have been talking a lot recently. We actually have some similarities, although we seem like chalk and cheese."

Lien smiled at her. "Maybe you can make up with him?"

@James Potter

Alayna didn't like it. But, she couldn't really say anything. Then again, he didn't like her talking to Ptolemy. How was it any different? She laughed when he suggested making up with James, "Oh baby, there's alot that happened. Alot of things were said. I don't think there's any fixing it." She held his hand and stroked her thumb over his knuckles, "You so sweet though."

@Lien Chang

He looked at her, and was pulled under her spell. Alayna was bewitching in that sense, and he found it difficult to control himself. He should be angry at her for suggesting that he shouldn't be friends with James, but her touch had him thinking otherwise.

"Er... I-I just..."

He pushed back his glasses distractedly.

"... I just want you to know that I'll probably be hanging around him, regardless of your argument. So. Yeah. That's that."

@Alayna Nott

Alayna was confused. She wasn't normally denied what she wanted. How could he still say he was going to be friends with him? "you had an issue with me hanging out with Ptolemy, someone I've known literally my entire life. You spent years hating James and now you're all buddy buddy with him? That doesn't make sense, Chang. But fine. You can hang out with James all you want. But then you don't get to control who I spend my time with."

@Lien Chang

"That's different! He's a boy who is hanging off you all the time!"

He was pretty sure she'd never called him Chang before, so that was probably a warning sign.

"I- I never said you couldn't hang around with him, but you clearly need to set some boundaries there. That shouldn't be up to me." He sighed. "Yes, I know I hated him, but I just hate him a lot less nowadays. We've actually talked together. He's not as annoying as I thought."

@Alayna Nott

"He's a friend! One of my best friends." She said. She was tired of having this argument. Why did she have to set boundaries. They weren't even dating. "You know, we're not officially together. Neither of us should be able to control who the other hangs out around." She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, "Yeah. He's not annoying you anymore because he's trying to fuck you." She muttered under her breath.

@Lien Chang

Lien frowned at her. How could she not see how touchy feely they got? It annoyed him.

"What was that?"

He didn't catch the last part. Lien shook his head.

"Well - I mean... Why aren't we? I thought... I could be your boyfriend. Th-that's pretty much what this is, isn't it?" He pushed up his glasses nervously.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna wasn't going to repeat herself. It angered her to the say it the first time. She took a deep breath and thought about what Atticus would tell her, 'Dont let your anger take away something you really want.' and he would be right, per usual. When he finally asked to be her boyfriend, her frown quickly turned into a smile, "I didn't know you just assumed that. I mean, yes. That's what I want."

@Lien Chang

"Well," he said, flustered, "That's decided then. Good."

He didn't know if putting the word girlfriend onto their relationship made him feel any differently, but it seemed to be making Alayna happy. Girls seemed to put a lot of emphasis on these things.

"Are you thirsty? I'm thirsty." He smiled briefly at her, then held her hand.

@Alayna Nott