fandomhighdorms | The Stables; Later Tuesday Afternoon [12/13].

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The Stables; Later Tuesday Afternoon [12/13].

Now that Graham had been ~~eventually~~ armed with the knowledge of what exactly this day entailed and after a ~~presumably~~ incredibly awkward departure/escape from the common room, he was struck with another thought that almost had him not continuing on his way to the stable to get to his training with Triumph, but, instead, toward town.

There was mistletoe that wanted people to kiss each other to the point of violence. It was Tuesday. Charlie usually worked on Tuesday, and so if Graham just so happened to find his way to Groovy Tunes, and the mistletoe found its way there, too...

But Graham didn't take more than two steps in that direction before he instantly felt terrible for having had this thought, and he firmly kept the trail toward the stables, though he wasn't there to do his usual training session with Triumph anymore, but, instead, to have a much needed heart-to-heart.

"...because that's not a very good, nice thing to do, is it?" he was telling Triumph, who listened patiently. They were tucked comfortably in Triumph's stall, despite having pretty much full reign over the place, Graham leaning against him comfortably, as they often did when Graham was troubled and just needed to talk through some things. "To kiss one person and then turn right around and go kiss someone else, too? You shouldn't be kissing more than one person at a time, or at least not so soon after each other, right? Besides, what if Charlie doesn't know about the mistletoe? Then that's not good, either, if I know, and she doesn't, for me to talk advantage of that, you know? I'd feel terrible. Even if it would be really nice to kiss her. It was really nice ~~eventually~~ kissing Guillermo, too..."

Triumph made a few encouraging grunts and squeaks in response, the last one lilting up in a question and Graham, despite himself, and feeling his face flood with red again, had to chuckle.

"Oh yeah," he informed Triumph confidently, "definitely a big fan. Kissing is great. I would definitely not be against doing more of it!"

Just maybe not when it was all because some enchanted mistletoe was insisting on it...and maybe when he was a little less confused about who he should or could be kissing, too.

[[ open stable is definitely open! ]]

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After work, as planned, and trailing several strands of mistletoe, Charlie wandered about until she head Graham in the stables talking to Triumph. She wasn't sure what he was saying, but she'd recognize his voice anywhere. She opened the door and stepped inside, then knocked and waited for him to turn around.

Wrapped as he was in the nice, comforting bubble that was just getting to talk about all his troubles and feelings with Triumph, Graham jumped a little bit at the sound of a knock, startled out of her reverie with just a little bit of a spark of panic. "Just a minute!" he said, as he scrambled up and desperately tried to brush all the straw from his tunic and his cloak, and probably a little out of his hair, too, as he straightened his cap and slipped out of Triumph's stall to see who it was.

And then his eyes widened when he did, red flooding his face, and suddenly feeling paralyzed to do much else.

"C-Charlie!" he finally managed to get out. "Erm, hi, uhm..."

The next part seemed to just rush out of him all in one breath as he lifted a hand as if to stop her or warn her.

"Charlie, you should be really careful right now! There's enchanted mistletoe about that seems to want people to kiss!"

"Oh believe me, I know," Charlie said with a grin, then hesitated. She might be all about whatever physicality people enjoyed, but the Aunties were always clear about how careful one needed to be in this area when outside the family. And Graham was very important to her. He was her friend and she cared about him. So while she found him attractive (for many reasons) and was more than happy to kiss him (or whatever him, honestly) his comfort and happiness were far more important to her.

"I rather enjoy the mistletoe," she said carefully, "But I totally understand if you'd rather I take my mistletoe and leave you if you'd rather."

If Graham's eyes hadn't already widened to their full capacity, they would have gotten even bigger, but, as it was, it just sort of had the effect of him staring dumbly at Charlie for a moment.

"So you did already know!" he finally remarked, kicking himself for not having followed through the the bolder choice of having followed through with going to go see her. "And...and you brought your own?"

Little did Graham know that even more mistletoe was gathering in one of the corners of the stables even now as they spoke to help contribute to the level of mistletoe in a moment, but it was an entirely different matter alltogether if she'd brought some with her.

To the stables.

Where he was.

(And also Triumph, and as great as Triumph was and as much as everyone loved Triumph, he actually felt pretty confident that Charlie would not be bringing mistletoe to the stables with Triumph in mind).

Charlie grinned at him even if her grin was a little uncertain. "Well, yeah," she said making a sweeping gesture toward her mistletoe."I thought, well..."

Oh, have an uncertain Charlie. It was a very rare occurrence so enjoy it while it lasted.

"But like I said, I can go. Or you know, I mean..."

No. She was not there for Triumph, though she'd be happy to give him a snuggle or a kiss on the top of his head or something at some point.

"No!" Graham said, quickly, as soon as Charlie offered to go for a second time, even taking a step forward and reaching out a little, narrowly escaping having his ankle actually wrapped up in a bit of mistletoe that took a lunge for it as the exact same time. Immediately, his face flushed with wed and he dropped his arm, but only for a moment, because it very soon found the back of his neck, which he rubbed awkwardly. "I mean, I...I, uh....I, um...um..."

Words. What were they? Graham sure didn't know.

"You can stay!" he finally managed, hopefully. "If you want! Only if you want, though! I want you to. I mean, I was actually going to come see you...at the store...'cause you work...only I just...it didn't right, if I went knowing, but you didn't, and also, I was kissing Guillermo, too. I...I didn't know if that was okay. So I just....hid. In here. Instead?"

No, he didn't know why that last part wound up a question.

Charlie's smile just grew and grew as he talked. "I do want to stay and I think it's awesome that you wanted to come see me at the store. And kissing is all about feeling good, so you shouldn't feel bad about kissing someone - or wanting to. I kissed a lot of people today, but I came to find you specifically. So you can still hide if you want, but I think kissing might be a lot more fun."

She was a little curious, but also confident. "So, was Guillermo a good kisser? Bet I'm better. No offense to Guillermo."

And here Graham thought he had a response to Charlie, but then that last part sent everything he might have said absolutely scattered to the wind, as what he thought for sure was the brightest blush yet today (which was saying a lot) practically engulfed his face and all he could do, at first, was just stammer out a few sounds.

"I...I...I don't know!" he admitted. "I never even kissed anyone, before today! So I wouldn't really know! I mean, I thought it was great."

Really great, actually, and he softened a little with a fond but awkward smile, his head ducking as he rubbed the back of his neck. When he looked at Charlie again, he didn't really lift his head as much as just his eyes, peeking over at her from under the brim of his adventurer's cap.

"I guess I don't really have a whole lot to compare it to, though. But, uh, I, uh..." He felt the nudge of some mistletoe at his back, surprisingly gentle, although maybe that was just because he was feeling exceptionally willing to let it nudge him forward toward Charlie anyway, "I think kissing sounds a lot more fun than hiding, too. And..." With a small laugh, his grin almost gained a little bit of confidence with its hopefulness. "It'd be a shame, if you just wasted your trip out here to find me specifically."

Yes, he was definitely taking that and tucking it away into the safest of his many pockets to probably cherish forever.

"Aw," Charlie said. "I kind of would have liked to be your first kiss, but I'm glad your first one was great. They should all be great."

She smiled at him moving with her mistletoe, which was definitely encouraging her forward. "I will certainly try to make the kissing worth coming out of hiding for. And I definitely don't want to have wasted a trip, so maybe you should tell Triumph to close his eyes and come kiss me already."

The thought that Charlie would have liked to have been his first kiss put a big, dopey grin on Graham's face, and he might have almost got a little lost in appreciating that thought if not for the helpful (slightly increasingly more insistent) nudges against his shoulders from the mistletoe. He bit his lip a little nervously before he tongue ran over it nervously, feeling that anticipatory sweat start to spring up a little bit.

"Oh," he said, grinning, heart racing, as he realized that the gap between them was growing shorter and shorter, until finally he was close enough to do something about it, "I think I might have a better idea."

Hopefully, Charlie would be willing to accept him closing his eyes and coming to kiss her already instead.

A little awkwardly, yes; when he'd kissed Guillermo, he'd had the benefit of them being practically right on top of each other. He had to lean in a little to kiss Charlie, but, once he did, he stepped forward just that little bit closer to make it slightly less awkward. Maybe. He hoped.

"Oh?" Charlie asked, leaning in even closer, then pulled back. "Wait. Better than kissing Triumph? Are you sure?" She smiled at him, then moved that last little bit to let their lips meet.

Oh yes, this was what she'd been wanting to do. She was gentle, delicate, seeing where he wanted to go with this.

Was it a actually possible, to grin from ear to ear and kiss someone at the same time? Because Graham definitely felt like he was trying to to both.

Then again, Graham also kind of felt like he was floating right now, too, so his perception on things might be a little skewed at the moment.

Charlie was also pretty smiley herself. She moved in a little closer and slipped one arm around his back to pull him in a little closer.

Oh, good! If Charlie had her arm around him, Graham definitely wouldn't have to worry about just floating away. That would make it pretty difficult to keep kissing her, and, just for a little added safety measure...and because he was mostly following her lead and realized that even closer was a great idea, he slipped an arm around her, too.

His other hand took a brief detour to ensure that his hat wasn't slipping off before that arm joined the other.

Too bad he'd wasted time checking on his hat because Charlie was pretty determmined to take his hat off and slide her fingers into his hair with her free hand.

Oh, no! But his hat! His hat was...

...on second thought, actually, Graham realized that his hat would be just fine, because there were fingers in his hair now, and that was nice. Very nice, actually. And wondering if he should continue to follow Charlie's lead on that, too, he started to move one of his hands up her back,but only really made it about halfway, finding it all very distracting and maybe getting so caught up in everything that he'd practically forgotten what he was going to do in preference to everything he was currently doing.

Charlie just might have done a little shimmying against him as they kissed. And ever so gently she started to deepen the kiss - just a little - and made a soft sound against his lips.

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The Stables; Later Tuesday Afternoon [12/13].

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