Stuck in Second Gear

Unsurprisingly, her cheeks burned When he was blunt enough to mention precisely why he wouldn't have an issue. Although her gaze fell to the floor for a moment, Adrienne lifted her chin to watch him as he spoke. When an idea came to mind, she couldn't resist.

So she sat up as his challenge of sorts came to a close, crossed the room, and perched herself on the end of the piano bench. The hand closest to him lifted, her fingers passing over the keys in front of her without creating a sound.

"Does that mean," she wondered, her face the absolute portrait of innocence as she glanced sideways at him from beneath her lashes, "that you're not thinking about me when you do that? I rather liked to think you might," she added, turning her attention on his hands as they pressed into the keys. "But as you claim it doesn't count against you, I suppose not."

Selwyn laughed and looked down at her.

"You realise what you just said?" he asked. "You actually wonder what I think about to get off? You really want it to be you? I think that's your wild side starting to show, there."

He stopped playing, straddled the bench then took Addie by the hips to close the gap between them.

"There's this river that runs through our property," he said, bending his head to smell her hair. "It has a lot of little streams that run into it. And I've always thought it would be kinda hot to go round the whole Glen and make out in all of them."

"Of course, it gets pretty cold up there, so we'd have to create our own warmth."

He pulled back.

"Your turn."

Even though she ducked her chin, Adrienne was laughing a bit as well. "To be fair, I didn't think on it until you brought it up. But, sure. Take from it what you will."

She turned her head to look at him as he moved, and ended up gasping audibly when he drew her in. She obviously didn't have an image of his home in her mind, but she could practically picture it as he spoke. When he leaned away, she wasn't entirely sure what he was after, but she figured she could make something of an educated guess, given the direction of the conversation thus far.

"Would it be pathetic for me to admit that I have that same image every other Ravenclaw must have? The whole library thing. Because it isn't at all about the books. I mean," she paused, drawing in a breath, "have you ever thought about it? Hiding between the stacks because you couldn't focus on school work long enough to convince yourself not to do anything..."

Her hands fell to the knee of his that was now in front of her, sighing a bit. "Is that what you wanted to know?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. "I may have less of a wild side than you imagine, but that's the main part of it. So far, anyway."

Selwyn smiled when Addie gasped, but didn't comment on it.  At least she hadn't hit him.

"I never thought it was about books," he replied. "I just thought you had a bunch of exhibitionists in your midst."

"It does make sense," he added before she could argue with him.  "Hufflepuff is pretty open minded, but I reckon Ravenclaws are more likely to take experimentation to whole new levels."

He raised his hand to poke her, trying to find the spot that ought to make her squirm.

"So I guess the question now is whether you're a member of your local library," he mused.

Adrienne made a disapproving and affronted sound, tossing him a baleful look after he kept on, never giving her the chance to correct him. After a time, she gave up and just pursed her lips at him. That is, until he poked her side and she let out a frustrated squeak.

Swatting his hand away, Adrienne silently acknowledged the fact that she had very little chance of convincing him he was wrong about Ravenclaws - in general, not even just her.

"I am, in fact," she replied, choosing to drop the exhibitionist comment entirely. "Though I can't really say that I can see what it matters right now. Why? Did you intend to suggest a visit? I'm not sure it works the same way if it's all planned out, besides."

This evening had revealed insights about both of them, and that was not necessarily for the best.

It was beginning to prey on Selwyn's mind that even if he did eventually manage to win Adrienne over, they may simply not be compatible, regardless of how much he cared for her. If tonight was any indication, he was fairly sure she was at least attracted to him as well, but there was still something missing.

Despite his best efforts, they kept clashing. He knew why, too. They both had control issues. Were both constantly vying to be the one in charge.

The ironic part was that Selwyn didn't have a problem with letting her take the lead. In fact, he'd have preferred if she did. He was constantly worried about overstepping her comfort zone and that would take a hell of a lot of pressure off.

The problem came when Addie complained about him not initiating anything and then got all insecure and defensive when he did. It was doing his head in.

"No, of course not," he lied in reply to her question.

Of course he wanted to take her to the library. There was a reason Selwyn thought the Ravenclaws were exhibitionists.

"I was just winding you up."

He moved back to the couch, flipping the pizza lid open as he passed.

"We should eat this before it gets cold," he said.

Perhaps Adrienne was worse at acting casual than she thought. His response actually disappointed her, and she half wanted to say that she actually would need to go to the library at some point anyway, because she wanted to do some additional research on families like Kaiden's. But she decided that it might be best to keep that to herself for a bit.

So when he moved, Adrienne straightened up but stayed where she was. "Right," she replied, feigning nonchalance.

Was it so wrong to wish for a surprise, rather than some planned, obvious response to her ideas? It wasn't bad, of course, to think he had considered it. If he actually had. She wasn't sure anymore.

[ooc: I'm not 100% what to do with this bit, but I do have an idea for a sort of time jump, so if you're up for me moving it maybe shoot me a PM and I can edit it in? Or if you have a preference we can chat about where to aim next.]