solarhippie | Guidance Counselor's Office, Tuesday

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Guidance Counselor's Office, Tuesday

In the end, Karolina had had most of extra flowers from Friday carted to a women's center on the mainland. But, she'd also taken some home, and she'd Googled for how to dry roses, too, so now she had a box in her office filled with silica desiccant and some roses she wasn't supposed to open for a few weeks. She realy wanted to peek in and see how they were doing, but she didn't know if that would disturb the process, so... A few hours into her work day today, she went ahead and moved the box from her desk to on top of one of the filing cabinets, where it wasn't constantly in her line of sight.

There were also a few flowers still in a vase on her desk. Starting to wilt, sure, but not too badly. They were okay enough that she didn't think they'd give her office an unwelcoming air or anything.

The door to the office was open, and the guidance counselor was in and doing some paperwork.

[ooc: Open, with bouts of slowness until I get home tonight!]

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Yeah, the eyebrow thing was really not smooth at all, but Karolina's little snicker was kind of delighted all the same. Maybe a little blush-y too, because that was just her face's way of going about its business.

"I mean, yeah, we can probably work something out for the long-term," she said. "But... what about now?"

". . . oh, right." They were really terrible at having a simple conversation, weren't they?

Apparently not bothered by that little gaffe, Beau slid over a tiny bit closer, taking a moment to be silently delighted about getting Karolina to blush again and also mentally discarding several answers that were probably highly inappropriate for the workplace.

"I don't know. Surprise me?"

Casual affection was a new concept for her. She was working on it, but . . . slow going.

Karolina was, at her heart, a dork.

This was a statement that really ought to have preceded a lot of her actions, but this one in particular: after a few seconds' thought, she reached out and took Beau's hand.

Then brought it up to her lips so she could press a kiss on the back of it.

Hey now, that dorkiness was one of Beau's favorite things about her.

There was a split second there, right when she felt Karolina's hand first brush against hers, that Beau froze, looking genuinely unsure of what was happening. But just for a split second, and then she laughed.

"Yeah, you got me good there," she said. Which was true; it had been a surprise.

She didn't let go of Karolina's hand, though. Curled her fingers around it and squeezed it lightly, more like.

That did not make Karolina any more inclined to reclaim her own hand, you know. So she didn't. Just squeezed Beau's fingers back and grinned up at her.

"Yeah, I thought you might not expect that," she teased. "I don't know, I'd hate to boring, I think."

Beau liked to think that she, at a whole 22 years old, was about as cynical and jaded as you could get. But with Karolina smiling up at her like that, her heart kind of melted a little bit, and she was starting to think that maybe she might be in trouble here.

Well, depending on how you looked at it, that wouldn't be anything new.

"Nah," she said, perfectly content to run her thumb lightly back and forth across Karolina's hand instead of letting go. "You're pretty good at surprising me."

That was also true, even if for no other reason than that Beau was continually surprised that Karolina seemed to like her as much as she did.

Karolina was a distinctly unjaded 23-year-old, and she was almost literally made of sunshine. You didn't really stand a chance, Beau.

"Good," she decided. "I think I like surprising you." It had worked wonderfully for her so far, at least. "So... what else have you been up to? Except bringing coffee. Which was a good surprise too!"

No, Beau really didn't stand a chance. And she was actually okay with that, so there was another surprise.

"Work, bugging Fjord, the usual mostly," she said, shrugging. "Kinda got press-ganged into the radio station by a bunch of squirrels last week, though, so that was nice and embarrassing." Mostly on account of being called out on the dorky grin that no one would have known about otherwise, so thanks for that. Keyleth.

"You can surprise me all you want," she added. "I'm totally good with it. Gonna have to come up with some new ones myself, though, since you'll be expecting the coffee . . . I mean, I'll still bring you some, but I might have to spice things up a bit."

Not like that. Well, not just like that.

"Wait, you did radio and I missed it?" Karolina asked, eyebrows bouncing up. "Aw." And there was the little pout - a little exaggerated, but not entirely.

She was probably going to dig up the podcast now, though.

And her expression brightened up again. "Also, food is always a great surprise because I like never remember to bring any good snacks here." Well, not unless she was trying to lure students to come visit her. (Not creepy.)

"Last Saturday, I think? I'm not even sure how it happened, but the whole squirrel thing is kind of creepy," Beau grumbled, albeit with less heat than usual, so it sounded more like whining than she'd ever admit to. "Anyway. Food, huh? I'll make a note of that."

You were going to end up getting so many snacks, Karolina. So many.

And okay, that cute little pout had only lasted a moment or two, but Beau had the unprompted impulse to lean down for a quick kiss anyway, as if she had to make up for causing it in the first place. Why? She didn't know, but it seemed to make sense.

"You get used to the squirrels."

That was a lie, you never got used to the squirrels, not really. They were tiny rodent journalists who could be bought off with rum, there was no getting used to that.

And, anyway. The quick kiss had Karolina reaching upwards a little and discarding any thoughts about squirrels for a second.

"Hi," Beau mumbled against her lips, grinning like the biggest dork in the world. "I've been wanting to do this, so I kinda feel like bringing you coffee was a solid choice now."

She could at least be somewhat resigned to the squirrels as long as they shared the rum.

"Hi," Karolina agreed in a murmur, her hand creeping up to gently cup Beau's cheek. She knew there was a very limited amount of time she could keep touching her when she was at work and her office door was open, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to get at least a little greedy. "I've been waiting for you to do this."

Okay, not really, because she could also have initiated a little kiss herself, but... It didn't seem to be much of a misstep to let Beau know it was appreciated?

"It's nice to see you."

No, that was definitely the kind of behavior where Beau could stand to get some positive reinforcement.

. . . she hoped it wasn't too obvious that she was leaning into Karolina's hand a bit; it was kind of sad, really, how novel little gestures like these were to her.

"I've been wanting to see you," Beau admitted, her eyes half shut and a dopey little smile on her face. "It might have been turning into like a withdrawal situation a little bit there."

Beau's leaning was a little obvious, maybe - or maybe Karolina was just inclined to notice. She didn't say anything about it, though. Just brushed her thumb lightly over Beau's cheek, under her eye.

"Really?" she teased. "Goodness, good thing you showed up before it became a problem."

"It was already a problem," Beau replied -- whined, to be totally honest about it. Soooooooo yeah, she maybe had it bad. You could make a good argument for that, especially since she was reaching up to cover Karolina's hand with her own.

"We could do something later, maybe? Like after you're off work."

What was so hard about just saying you'd missed her, Beauregard?

Karolina didn't really need her to say it: it was kind of what she was hearing anyway.

"Yeah," she agreed, with a smile that was all too soft and pleased for someone who'd been trying to play things cool over the last few weeks. (Of course, Karolina and 'playing it cool' were kind of a doomed match to begin with.) "Dinner, maybe? Or we could just... hang out."

"No, dinner would be awesome," Beau blurted out a little too quickly for someone who'd also been making a losing effort (no matter how much she'd been telling herself otherwise) at playing it cool. "I mean, both. I'm down for both."

Karolina's smile turned a little more into a smirk. A vaguely amused one.

"Taste of Thai does good vegan, at least?" she offered.

"Sure, sure, that works," Beau agreed. "I'm pretty much down for whatever when it comes to food."

Then blinked. "So . . . is this like a date then, I guess? Am I doing this right?"

Karolina had been doing so well at seeming pretty smooth in her actions for at least a whole few minutes. So it was probably just inevitable that she ended up blinking owlishly back at Beau for a second.

Look, 'date' was more official, it threw her off and put butterflies in her stomach.

She blushed a little.

"Umm... Yes."

"I mean --"

That did sound really official, now that Beau thought about it. Which was . . . so not her usual thing, and while she was wondering how she'd gotten into this situation she wasn't looking to get out of it either.

"It doesn't have to be, if you don't want it to," she offered finally. "We can just, you know. Hang out. I mean, unless you're sure . . ."

She was so bad at this. Help.

"Hey, what, no."

She probably could've made her point without reaching up with her until-now-free hand to cup Beau's face from both sides but, eh. She went with the impulse, as usual.

"I want it to be a date," she murmured. "I really want it to be a date."

You know what, it wasn't as if Beau had a track record of being cautious or prepared before she threw herself into a situation so really, why should she start now?

Karolina wasn't the only one having a butterflies situation here, either; in between that tone of voice and the warmth of her hands against Beau's face Beau was . . . forgetting how to breathe, just a little bit.

She nodded, though, looking relieved and very, very pleased. "Okay then," she said, her voice a little huskier than usual because she was all over the place emotionally right now. "Okay, cool. Date, check. You and me, tonight. Dinner and then . . . maybe other stuff afterward?"

"Dessert?"

That little quip was about as close to innuendo as Karolina was going to get, under the circumstances, but she still looked kind of pleased with herself for it.

Like a dork, yes.

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