A walk in the park - Open

Cat had decided it was a perfect day to go walking in the park. It was sunny, which Cat loved. It was also nice enough to wear her favorite sun dress, a blue floral one. Cat had her red hair in a side bun and had put her favorite pair of sunglasses on. Her sandals slapping the ground, she began her walk.

Cat really wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, walking around absentmindedly. Seeing ducks, she stopped and stared at them, paying particular attention to the ducklings crossing in her path. Laughing, she began walking.

Unfortunately, Cat probably should've been paying attention. Looking at the kids running past her side, she felt a body collide with hers. Shocked, Cat caught herself before hitting the ground, looking to see how the other person was.

Keith wasn't sure why he had gotten into this whole "running" thing.

"Go run," his dad had said. "Get in the habit now so you won't get fat when you get older."

Ha. Get older. Keith had big plans to stop aging at roughly twenty-two. But that didn't mean he couldn't humor his dad a bit and besides, it was always nice to have a backup plan.

So, thinking about it, Keith was completely sure why he had gotten into running. But that didn't mean he couldn't regret it. Half a mile and his lungs were on fire. Somebody call an ambulance or two. This thing was horrible. Still, he couldn't deny the small bit of satisfaction he got from exercising. If only to know he wasn't going to get fat and useless until he was good and ready to do so.

"Hey, hey, coming through," Keith muttered as he weaved and ducked his way through a crowd of kids. "Athlete on the road, everyone clear out."

Obviously his warnings did not spread far enough, because a half moment later he ran straight into someone and sent himself tumbling head over heels into the grass next to the sidewalk.

"Alright, ow," he said, laying on his back and rubbing his head. "You could've paid attention, you know," he said, twisting his neck to see who he had run into. It was a girl, redhead, maybe a year older than himself. He recognized her, he thought. Hufflepuff, maybe? Heh. Hufflepuff. No, she was Gryffindor, he remembered now. Slightly better.

Cat looked down at whoever she ran into, a hand covering her mouth. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry. Oh, shit." Her perfectly planned day was ruined. Kneeling down next to him, she frowned. "Are you okay?" The least she could do was see if he was okay, instead of trying to murder him. Of course he's not okay, twit.

Cat looked at the boy she was sitting next to. She knew he was younger than her, probably just by a year. She recognized him, seeing him in the great hall and in the halls. Cat sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, I feel terrible." Laughing suddenly, she stuck out her hand. "I'm Catalina Malcom, but call me Cat. I'm sorry about almost killing you, it's a terrible habit of mine that I'm trying to break." Cat tried to lighten the situation by a lame joke. Standing up, her hand was still reached to him. "Let me help you up."

Keith blinked once. "Oh. Um, yeah, ok." He grabbed her hand and she helped pull him to his feet, apologizing profusely.

Keith groaned inwardly. He hated it when people were nice to him. It made him feel like an ass for being rude and confrontational about it. Of course she hadn't been trying to unite him with the sidewalk, she had just been walking and he had been being irresponsible.

He grinned ruefully, rubbing the back of his neck. "No, really, it's not your fault," he said after a moment. "My bad. Sorry. I'll pay more attention the next time I'm sweating myself to death...I mean running." He grinned. "I'm Keith. How about you?"

Cat felt like he was doing the same thing that she always did when people were too nice to her, kicking himself. She didn't mean to make a big deal about it, she just felt really bad that she had knocked into him.

"Okay. Are you sure?" Cat asked concerned, biting her lip. She laughed, trying not to be as stressed as she was. "Well, I was really good until I crashed you to the ground. How are you?"

"Okay. Are you sure?" She asked, biting her lip.

"Yeah, positive. It's no big deal," he said, drawing an X over his chest. "Cross my heart."

She asked how he was, and he shrugged. Honestly he felt like he was about to collapse in a pile of sweat and sore muscles but he wasn't about to do something like that in front of a girl he'd have to face on a daily basis soon. No matter how much he wanted to just sit down and maybe die a little - he really needed to run more.

He made a vain attempt to brush his hair out of his eyes. "Oh, you know, same old same old. Pretty good I guess. Getting in shape. What brings you to the park?" He asked out of curiosity. Keith had never really been an outdoorsy kid, and the idea that some people might just enjoy the fresh air and sunshine didn't really occur to him.

"Alright." Cat let out the breath that she was holding in relief, but a part of her wasn't entirely sure. Ah, oh well. She had to trust him. The shrug, Cat knew, meant more than it showed, but she decided not to push the subject any longer. She had already pushed it enough.

"I like feeding the ducklings. But, I had nothing to feed them with, so I decided to walk around. Maybe meet people." Cat shrugged. It wasn't a extremely exciting answer, but it was an honest one.

"Feeding ducklings," Keith said, his eyebrows creeping up his face and vanishing into his bangs. "Sounds, uh...fascinating." He made a half hearted attempt to keep the sarcasm out of his tone and was only mildly disappointed when he failed to do so.

"Well, at least you're meeting people now, right?" He said. "Mission accomplished, right?"

Oh, small talk. Keith had never been incredibly good at this stuff. He was a busy guy most of the time, or maybe it was just he didn't really like most people - either way he wasn't the best at the small talk stuff.

Note to self: Be more charming.

Impossible. He was super charming already. That was a ridiculous note to self.

"Oh, don't act so shocked." Cat pushed him lightly, teasing of course. "Tone down the sarcasm. I can't handle it." It was Cat's turn to be sarcastic, and she didn't tone it down at all. Grinning to herself, she inspected her hands, which had dirt on them. Frowning, she tried rubbing the dirt off.

"I don't think almost killing someone sufficies as meeting new people. But yeah, mission accomplished." Cat rolled her eyes, shaking her head. The smile she had on her face only widened, as she continued to tease the poor boy.

"Ouch," Keith said, pressing his hand to his heart as his face twisted into an expression of exaggerated pain. "Your words. Like an Avada Kedavra to the soul. The soul." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I'd say "almost-kill" is a bit of an overstatement. And even if it wasn't, you wouldn't be the first so I'm not going to hold it against you."

A small smirk crept across his his face. "See how generous I'm being here? Like I should open a soup kitchen or something."