Open Dancing in the Dark

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan had absolutely no idea why she'd thought it would be a good idea to go to the Forbidden Forest. She knew she was likely going to get into trouble, but since last year had gotten interrupted, she'd been meaning to go back and just never had the chance. She had to babysit a bunch of first years last time and this time she didn't have Elio, but Caspian instead. She wasn't spending the night with Elio at present, that was later, so she wasn't going to ask him to join here. Not to mention he was a prefect so she didn't want him to lose his badge. It did offer some perks, but not enough to get him out of trouble for being in the Forbidden Forest after dark, or at all, really. She wasn't going to go that far in really, just enough to not see the castle, get some nice practice on a rooty, leafy ground before helping Elsie with some new moves she was hoping to come up with. This was going to be Elsie's big recital, she couldn't let her sister down. "We're not going like super far in, okay, so we shouldn't get eaten by anything, I'm sure it's fine." Surely they'd have a barrier around anything really dangerous. Her parents put a barrier around the pond when they were children so they couldn't fall in. It was the only sensible thing to do. "Come on!" She said, kicking up a little quicker as she raced to the edge. It was a little bit chilly tonight, so she was dressed uncharacteristically in a pair of sweat pants and a long sleeved shirt that still allowed her to move freely. It was tight at the chest, but looser fitting just below the ribs and to the stomach so she could twist and turn in her moves if she needed to. There was no real reason for her to be dancing in the Forbidden Forest, she just... wanted to.​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Being grabbed by Rowan to go off on an adventure was certainly unusual, he wasn't even sure if he could consider Rowan and himself friends, their interactions had been limited to lessons and time she spent in the boys dorm. Rowan grabbed Caspian as she made her way out of the common room and he followed her out of the castle doors and onto the grounds as she seemed to be heading to the forest. "You're gonna tell me why we're going to the forest right?" He asked, her answer however was far from satisfying. "Well as long we don't get eaten! That should be fine," Caspian laughed, only half joking. He had been given no information on what their excursion was all about, it really begged the question why he was following her. At the end of the day, questioning his sexuality or not when a girl in a tight top asked him to follow her, he did so.

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan wasn't quite sure why she'd specifically picked Caspian for this venture, though, she had wanted to come here and she couldn't take Elio for a number of reasons, so she supposed Caspian made more sense than f*cking Vegeta. She really didn't end those poor boys having to share a dorm with him. Especially Vader, who she knew that Vegeta also used to pick on. Vegeta and Goku were certainly two completely different people, like herself and Elsie. She couldn't really imagine being identical to Elsie though, that would be weird. They were at the entrance to the forest now and it certainly looked very, very dark. "Alright, so... assuming I've timed this right, the patrols shouldn't be out for another hour or so, and if I get what I want by then, we should be home free," she said holding her hand out for Caspian to take. "We'll need to stick together, well... you know that, you were there last year too." She said, having momentarily forgotten. He asked her why they were in the forest and honestly, she didn't have much of an explanation except for the fact that she was trying new things and she'd never been much of an explorer on her own. She gave him a bit of a sheepish grin. "Well, to be honest, I don't have a very good reason... I just wanted to." She said shrugging and she pulled her wand out of her pocket and pointed it in front of her. "We don't want to trip, wand out."​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Rowan was making very little sense, she spoke like she had a particular reason for being in the forest like there was something she wanted or an outcome but by her own admission, she didn't have a good reason. What was she up to? At her word, Caspian reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wand which he held out in front of him. "I've got your back Ro, but what exactly is it you want this far into the forest?" Caspian was pretty sure he was just there to stand guard while she did whatever it was she came to do but he felt like he should at least know what that was.

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan had her wand out and was pointing in the direction of the Forest, she knew they needed to go a little bit into the forest to get away from any prying eyes of prefects and such, but she wasn't about to be stupid about it. She knew there were some things in there at night that could easily take her life, but she was invested now, she wanted to take more risks, get to know more about herself outside of Elio. The last time she'd been here it had been with Elio, so this was going to be an experience. She turned to Caspian as he spoke and raised an eyebrow at him. "Sorry, did I hear you call me Ro just now?" She asked him. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that, they weren't exactly friends and yeah, all the boys in that dorm at one point or another had seen her in nothing but shorts and a top, since she spent so much time with Elio previously, but she wasn't sure that necessarily gave them all the right to just randomly start using her nickname without even asking.​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Caspian was surprised by Rowan's reaction to his use of her nickname, to the point she had ignored everything else he had said and focused solely on that. "Sorry I guess I just..." It was strange to think he wasn't actually on those terms with her given how familiar he was with her. "I guess I forgot for a moment that we're not actually friends," He said awkwardly trying to look ahead at the path they were following rather than at Rowan.

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan bit her lip. She'd done it again. The cruelty. She watched him for a moment, wondering why she was so defensive of her nickname. Was it all entirely focused on Elio, or something more? "Look," she started slowly, moving to stand closer to him. "I'm sorry, okay, it's nothing to do with you," which was true. "It's just... I don't have friends, and we've never really talked. I know I dragged you out here without your consent and I'm sorry... so, if you want to call me Ro, you can, okay? I didn't mean to make a whole thing of it." She said smiling slightly. Her first instinct was to reach out and squeeze his arm, which is what she would have done with Elio, but he wasn't Elio, so she didn't know if he'd accept that, so she left it instead. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean it, my head is just... a f*cking mess."​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Caspian hadn't expected himself to react in such a way, the truth was they weren't friends and he wasn't entitled to call her anything other than her name. There were a few things he could have said but he opted for none of them, maybe he'd use it again, maybe he wouldn't, he'd play it by ear. It was what she said after that struck a cord with him. "Look," He said quietly, "I know I'm not Elio, but you can talk to me, besides I've seen you in your pjs so, if that doesn't make us friends I don't know what does,"

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan chewed her lip a little, turning back to look deeper into the Forest. She really had just dragged him out here with no plan in place, and really, she'd never actually tried to be his friend, or have a conversation with him, but they'd seen a lot of each other because of her nightly schedule, which wasn't really much of a thing anymore. She kind of missed having all of them if she was honest. Well, except for Vegeta. "You can head back if you want," she said, looking back towards him. "I should have asked if you even wanted to come, I shouldn't have just assumed." She had a bit of a bad habit. "And... I don't expect you to be Elio, I know you're not. I didn't want him here, I picked you." That was mostly true. She could have asked or forced she supposed, a number of others to come with her, but she felt safest with Caspian out of the other boys if she wasn't with Elio. It might have had something to do with the kiss she'd seen last semester, or it might have not, either way, she hadn't really chosen him on as much of a whim as she might have wanted him or herself to think.​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Caspian shook his head, Rowan continued to surprise him as she almost apologised for dragging him out and even gave him permission to go back. "I'm not going anywhere, I told you I have your back," He smiled reassuringly as her. "Whatever reason you had for picking me, I'm glad you did, now lets go do what you came out here for," Caspian had given up hope of an explanation but presumably he would see what she was up to by things just unfolding. What was life without a little mystery after all? And Rowan seemed like a mystery he was interested in solving.

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan was trying to be a better person, that was the excuse she'd made to Elio so she had to actually try to be the kind of girl Elio seemed to think she was. The not cruel and mean type. Though it was certainly something she had to work on, that was for sure. Still not quite there though, as was evidenced with her interactions with the Gryffindor she was currently with. "Okay, thank you, honestly... I couldn't have done this alone." She didn't want to tell Caspian she'd brought him along technically as a second choice, but it was true that she felt safest with him over any of the other boys, part of it was his association with Elio, but the other part was just that she seemed to have spoken to him more than the others and he seemed less bothered by her presence in their dorm than the others did. To which she was grateful. "Okay, we just need to get a little bit deeper, until we can't see the castle otherwise they'll see the wand light, yeah?" She said, rolling over a large fallen tree. She was too small for this honestly. "I need longer legs," she complained as she climbed over yet another tree.​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Caspian waved his hand dismissively, he was in far too deep to turn back now and he was genuinely curious what Rowan was after so deep in the forest as she had so far evaded all his attempts to ask. Whatever it was required them to light there wands so had to be deep enough so it couldn't be seen. "Okay, little further past this tree should be fine," Caspian watched her climb over a particularly stubborn tree, he wanted to say something about her legs being just fine but he didn't think Rowan would appreciate the remark. "I can always help you over next one if needed," He offered.

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan nodded at Caspian. "Yeah, not too far," she said, gesturing him closer to her as she held her wand out in front of her, keenly aware of any little sounds that came from somewhere she wasn't expecting, after all, they were in the Forbidden Forest, which posed a lot of threats, but she needed some inspiration and she realised that Caspian probably wouldn't understand the urgency of this, but it was really important to her at least. "Can you help me over this one then?" She asked, looking at the log that was taller than the one before. She was definitely going to need a boost over this. "Gimme a boost?" She asked over her shoulder, hoping she'd find a nice patch of clear space on the other side, finally.​

 

[Caspian Lavish]

Caspian nodded as Rowan said it wouldn't be much further, which of course didn't mean much to him as he had no idea where they were going, he would just keeping walking until Rowan told him to stop. Once they reached a tree trunk Rowan wasn't able to climb over she asked for some help. "Sure," Caspian reached down so he could help her over the trunk. "Okay ready? Go," He said hiking her over the trunk so she could get over and onto the other side. Once she had landed he climbed over himself.