That moment, lit by the unexpected fireworks, seemed to be frozen in time, passing seconds only marked by her elevated heart rate. Gazing down at her, there was something intense in Saith's eyes that she didn't understand or perhaps didn't want to accept. It was like a bit of the sparklers had gotten trapped in his blue orbs and dropping few sparks in her chest, but oh Sun that was so needlessly cheesy! She just had to snap out of this! Blinking few times as if to dispel whatever nonsense was coming over her, Mae tried to leave, but he pulled her back.
"Saith-" she began, but stopped as steps in distance entered her field of hearing. He realized they weren't alone in the area about the same time. Next moment, he was pushing her into bushes and the woman nearly lost her balance, her high heeled shoes not suited perfectly for navigating wilder walks during nighttime.
"Hey!" woman hissed at him, but hid behind the tree, shadowed by the bushes, when he hid as well.
The next ten or fifteen minutes were a sort of revelation for elven woman. The way Saith handled first-years... Well, perhaps she could pull off something like that, if the right words came to her, but would they? And he was a guy, with reputation. They wouldn't listen to the stiff, authoritative council president. They would think she's preventing them from something fun and great, just lecturing them. Perhaps the very fact he'd talk them out of joining wasn't so much of a surprise as it should have been. She knew he had gotten in various kinds of trouble in earlier years, but this one had been rather quiet and even before that, the bad deeds had become fewer and fewer. So what if she had done a research on him? She had to know who she was going to invite into council group, right?
From the angle that the woman had, peeking from behind the tree, she couldn't see drow's face when he spoke about the girl he was interested in, but his tone was sincere and even hinting at sadness. Who could he be talking about? He had to be aware she could hear everything so it was either clear hint he wasn't interested in her or... the opposite. But this wasn't the time or place to get hung on that detail!
When officer arrived, she considered revealing her position and pulling some kind of lie, pulling them all under her metaphorical wing, but Saith was much faster than her. As he masterfully covered up the crime that had nearly happened, Lacrimae wondered how many of things he was said to have done had actually been a cover-up for someone else or pinned to him because it was conventional. When the group moved on, leaving dark skinned man behind, she moved to join him on the path, but froze as another voice speak up.
In the shifting light, she caught glimpse of gun at Saith's neck and her heart sped up, but not from excitement. What on Earth and other planets had he gotten involved in?! Her hand clenched on the rough bark of the tree as she tried to pick up anything on the mysterious stranger, but without much success. The other disappeared into darkness without sound, leaving Mae confused and even angry. Still, she accepted Saith's hand when he helped her out of the bushes. Standing on the pavement once more, she brushed down few leaves that were stuck to her skirt and jacket. At his words, she shot him a frustrated look. [b]"You cannot expect me to simply ignore and forget what involves this university, student safety and very possible the headmaster!"['/b] Mae told him in hushed voice.
"But if it puts you in danger to tell me about it... I will try not to involve you in my investigation," she added with a sigh. As they walked, silence grew deeper. There was just so much to think about, put piece by piece together. At the dorm entry, young woman turned to look at Saith.
"Thank you for the 'escort'," she told him with tight smile, before it became more genuine, a spark of laughter in her eyes:
"Try not to discover any secret government agencies on your way back."
Lacrimae was about to comment that would make them even then, when he delivered the final surprise of the night, stepping closer and pressing fleeting kiss to her cheek. Not a teasing corner of mouth one, too, but honest to Sun kiss on cheek with tenderness that stunned her for a moment.
"I have class from 2 to 6 tomorrow," she told him, automatically, but he was already leaving, so she was left wondering what the heck just happened and if Saith had heard her (he probably had, his hearing was probably even better than hers and that was saying something). For a moment, she stared in the darkness, lamp above the door making the contrast between light and dark too stark for her to see much and then ducked her head with a soft smile, hair falling in her face. As she turned, her hand floated up to touch where he had kissed her as she pushed the door open with other.
"So, it wasn't just a rumor after all!" a familiar voice exclaimed second later and Mae's head shot up, eyes wide. Silvana's grinning face greeted her, the woman leaning against one of the walls by the comfortable couches.
"What are you doing here?" elf asked, for what felt at least fifth time tonight. Some of them had been only in her mind, though.
"After you called me, I got worried about your safety and decided to wait until you got back. But you were taking your sweet time, so I was about to head out to look for you. Turns out you were merely taking a romantic stroll with certain someone," the exchange student responded, her hands now propped on her hips and mischievous spark in her strange eyes.
"It's not like that... He alerted me of the danger in first place and offered to escort me to dorms. And we did run in some trouble, that is why we took so long," Mae defended with frown.
"Well, what kind of trouble was it? Did your noses bump when you were about to kiss?" Seeing her friend's exasperated expression, Silvana laughed.
"There is really nothing between me and him," Mae told her as they were heading down the corridor to their rooms.
"What I saw is telling me different story and I say, good for you," the other woman spoke sincerely.
"I thought you'd be the last one to think local bad boy is the match for me," Mae huffed playfully.
"I don't care about his reputation, I care for what I see beneath it and between you two," Silv suddenly turned serious for a moment, looking at her friend. But it was short lived as she grinned once more:
"I have his number by the way!"
"What?" Lacrimae sounded a bit too surprised for her own liking.
"Don't worry, he wasn't reverse hitting on me, just gave it to me in case I got lost or something. This campus of yours makes no sense, you know!" fawn-colored girl chuckled. Hesitating at the doors, council president finally gave in.
"Okay, text it to me. I should have his contact information for the group meeting in any case."
"What a solid excuse!" with wink, Silvana disappeared in her room and half an hour later, Mae had Saith's number and exhaustion that didn't feel proportional to the work she had done today. And still, she lay unable to fall asleep, thinking over events of tonight, from the moment drow walked in the room to when he left, scrutinizing the details and trying to put everything in place.
Eventually, she did fall asleep and her dreams were lit by fireworks.
10:37AM: If you don't come today, I will assume you were drafted in secret army unit to protect the galaxy on the way back to your dorm.
That is what she wrote to him with no more explanation next morning. Well, not the very early morning, because she had been 'ambushed' by three students offering to volunteer for preparing the ball. She greeted them kindly, but didn't act like she was desperate for the help, and finally deemed them worthy of taking part and gave them tasks that would be easy enough for her to not worry if mishandled, but would make them feel important. Secretly smiling to herself, Mae had watched the trio leave, chatting excitedly between themselves.
Now she was drinking her coffee, one eye in council papers, other re-checking her latest paper and well... Somewhere in between, she was also typing a reply to their role play up for Scythe. She had been neglecting the story this week, with all the work, but right now, her mind was brimming with ideas and she was not going to let them slip away!