Guidance Counselor's Office, Tuesday

[solarhippie]

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!]

Comments

[solarhippie]

"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.

[notallbluemonks]

"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.

[solarhippie]

"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."

[notallbluemonks]

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."

[solarhippie]

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."

[notallbluemonks]

"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?

[solarhippie]

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."

[notallbluemonks]

"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."

[solarhippie]

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

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

[notallbluemonks]

"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?"

[solarhippie]

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."

[notallbluemonks]

"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.

[solarhippie]

"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."

[notallbluemonks]

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?"

[solarhippie]

"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.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau would have been concerned if she hadn't been a dork, really.

As it was, she burst out laughing before replying with a sly grin, "I'm not gonna say I wasn't looking forward to that part, 'cause I definitely was."

Surprising no one, most likely.

"The rest of it too, though. Really." Even if she did look a little bit nervous because holy crap official date.

[solarhippie]

"Yeah, me too," Karolina replied, the renewed softness in her voice probably the result of catching the little ticks of nervousness in Beau's expression. "But I mean... it's just calling what we were already going to do 'a date'."

Okay, maybe that was more for her own benefit, too.

[notallbluemonks]

Beau tilted her head, thinking, then turned to brush a kiss lightly against the palm of Karolina's hand.

"So wait, does that mean we've -- kind of -- been doing that already, and we didn't realize it?"

Which would honestly be pretty on brand for their disaster selves.

[solarhippie]

"Kiiiiinda?"

It was only a question because Karolina wasn't willing to straight-up admit that was exactly what it was.

"But uh, I mean, I don't think there are rules," she added, stumbling over her words a little just because the kiss against her palm, as light as ot was, both tickled and thrilled her. "You know, anything super fixed that says what qualifies as a date. I think we can just do it our own way."

[notallbluemonks]

"Okay." Beau got visibly more relaxed at that and exhaled a long, slow breath. "I don't really do well with rules anyway."

Guess who else wasn't prepared to admit to that either!

"Besides, that way I don't have to admit that I have no idea what I'm doing, except I kind of already did?" She snorted a quiet laugh, aware that she wouldn't have even said that out loud if she didn't already feel comfortable enough around Karolina. "Gods, I'm a mess. Sorry."

[solarhippie]

Karolina leaned in and kissed her. Yes, again. It just felt like Beau had earned it, you know? or maybe Karolina just felt like it.

Maybe both.

Probably both.

She'd get to words again in a second.

[notallbluemonks]

Anything else Beau might have been about to say went right out the window -- and her brain -- at that point, in favor of a soft muffled mmmph sound that had a distinctly pleased undertone to it.

Whenever Karolina pulled back, she'd just see Beau grinning dazedly, her eyes still half closed and looking about as happy as anyone had ever seen her.

Which wasn't overwhelmingly elated, granted, more like a dorky flavor of happy and kind of surprised about it, but still. It was a notable difference.

[solarhippie]

"Gosh, you are so cute."

Look, that was Karolina's immediate reaction upon pulling back a little and opening her eyes. And sometimes, you had to let those reactions out exactly as they were. Which in this case was kind of a breathy chuckle.

And also not the words she'd meant to say before she'd opened her eyes. But she could get to those: "I don't know what I'm doing, either," she admitted. "I never have." Between Xavin and Julie and handful of Tinder-adjacent dates making up the entirety of her history, it was a big ol' mess. "But I figure, maybe that doesn't matter?"

[notallbluemonks]

Beau had to take a moment before she replied; she knew Karolina well enough by now to know the compliment was genuine, and those were a little bit addictive for someone so unused to them that she had to stop and just . . . let it soak in a little bit.

"So we just make it up as we go along, kind of improvise?" she asked, reaching up to wrap her hands around Karolina's, almost more gently than she thought she was capable of. "Like -- figure it out together? I could be into that."

Karolina still had a slight edge on her own history of girls she never saw again once they were done with their business in town, granted, but at least they could both be a mess.

[solarhippie]

One of Karolina's first forays into dating had involved getting engaged to someone who'd been told she was their betrothed and that their marriage could stop a war.

'Mess' really was a good word for it.

"Yeah," she sighed. Appreciating the warmth of Beau's hands against hers. "I think it works. And going out to dinner and then probably in for other things... It seems like a really good step for that, in my book."