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

[notallbluemonks]

If anyone had asked, Beau would have said the reason she was up at the school today was because she wanted to go bug Fjord after his class, in which case she was on campus a fair bit earlier than necessary for that. Also in the totally wrong place for that at the moment, as it happened, since she was currently standing in the doorway of Karolina's office with a couple of cups from the Perk. Half leaning against the doorframe with one shoulder, to be more precise, but yes.

"Hey, Kar. You busy?"

[solarhippie]

"Beau!"

Karolina was bad at playing things cool. So, she looked pretty openly delighted as she looked up at the doorway.

"No, I'm completely free." Like almost always, really. "Come in."

[notallbluemonks]

Yeah, the half second pause before Beau actually did push herself upright from the doorway and come in, the hint of a smile on her face, was because people being happy to see her was still something she was learning to get used to.

"I was up this way so I kind of thought I'd stop by," she said, as if she'd gone and made sure to get a vegan latte from the Perk and then just happened to end up by the school by coincidence. She could have just put said latte on the desk, sure, instead of coming around to the opposite side and handing it directly to Karolina, but what fun was that? "Sorry to interrupt your paperwork? 'cause, you know, that's always so exciting."

[solarhippie]

Hey, if Beau wasn't going to acknowledge the holes in that story, then neither was Karolina. She was too busy watching her get closer, anyway. And then reaching out and taking the drink from her.

Her fingers brushing against the backs of Beau's was completely accidental, of course.

"It's the worst," she said with a little shake of her head, and a wry smile. "I don't think I was meant for paper work. So really, you're saving me."

[notallbluemonks]

Completely accidental, and not at all a factor in Beau's decision to personally deliver the drink to her.

"Damn. I should have made a more dramatic entrance then." Beau didn't really bother moving away, and just leaned against the edge of the desk. "Something that made me look really cool."

[solarhippie]

"I think you looked cool enough," Karolina decided with a slightly teasing little smirk. Then she held up the cup, demonstratively. "I think it was the coffee."

Dork.

"And thank you for this, by the way," she added, lowering it back down to where she could cradle it with both hands. "I have a machine here but it's not the same."

[notallbluemonks]

Beau narrowed her eyes and tried to look like she was giving this idea some serious thought.

"Coffee makes me look cool?" she asked, because she was just as much of a dork. Holding up her own mocha, she took a sip and tried to strike a dramatic pose with it. "I'm not really sure about this."

Another sip, then she nodded and gestured toward Karolina's drink. "Sure. I had to come up with an excuse to stop by, so coffee, right?"

That was not true; her entire starting motivation had been to bring the coffee, but Beau was weirdly, intensely self-conscious about just outright stating she'd done something nice for someone.

[solarhippie]

"It's a pretty good excuse," Karolina replied, smiling up at her. And, you know, there probably wasn't much difference in the brightness of it to what it would've been if she'd known Beau had actually started with the coffee.

Because the end result was the same: she was here, with coffee for Karolina.

"And it's pretty reusable too, so that's good."

[notallbluemonks]

"The coffee, or . . .?" Beau gave her a confused look for a second; she'd been too busy kind of basking in that whole thing where Karolina seemed to be happy she was here to not be a little bit distracted from the actual conversation here.

"Oh! Right, right, I get it." Way too late to act cool and nobody in this room would buy it for a second, but Beau winked at her anyway, trying to play it off. "Is this going to be a thing now? Am I like your coffee courier now?"

She'd be fine with that, for the record.

[solarhippie]

Coolness was overrated, anyway. Karolina found the wink that followed much more endearing.

"Maybe," she said, raising her cup for a sip as she said it, trying for mock-coy, which was quite a feat for someone like her who was actually a little coy more often than not. "If you'd like to be."

A sip.

"I definitely wouldn't mind, I'm just not sure how I would repay you for the kindness." Sure.

[notallbluemonks]

"We could probably work something out," Beau replied with a lift of her eyebrows that was absolutely ridiculous, because the implications there had been obvious enough before that. "A payment plan or something. You know. If I'm going to keep doing this."

The other implications to this conversation hadn't caught up to her yet, okay?

[solarhippie]

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?"

[notallbluemonks]

". . . 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.

[solarhippie]

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.

[notallbluemonks]

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.

[solarhippie]

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."

[notallbluemonks]

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.

[solarhippie]

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!"

[notallbluemonks]

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.

[solarhippie]

"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.)

[notallbluemonks]

"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.

[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."