Dinner Date

[Gabrian Raven]

Gabrian stood silently in front of Danielle's door. He had just arrived through portkey from his home in Italy, and wanted to give her as much time to get prepared as possible. She was, apparently, going to be cooking tonight. The pure blood had never witnessed her cooking prowess, but her brother seemed to find the topic simply hilarious when Gabrian mentioned it in passing. So now, as he stood on the front step of her home and the slightly chilly air, he was wondering whether he should have taken a potion or something. By Merlin, surely he was overreacting. For all he knew, Danielle's brother could have been playing around with him. It would not be as bad as the stuff at the Poison Ater, anyway. Some of the stuff on the meal made his stomach die before he even ordered anything. And the place was so... drab. Danielle's place was sure to be much brighter, and, frankly, better than that place. She was a woman of fine taste, after all. Just as he was a man of equally fine taste. And that extended to food, his main reason of being here. Even though he would much rather take her to Italy to another famous restaurant. He shook his head. There was no point in wishing the situation to change. He had to give it a chance, and just let it play out.

Gabrian fixed his collar and knocked on the door, finding it slightly ajar. He narrowed his eyes curiously, and poked his head through the door. "Danielle?" he called, pushing the door open further to allow himself to enter. "Are you in the kitchen?" he asked, attempting to find his way to her kitchen.

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I'm sorry it's so terrible.

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​

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[Danielle Raven]

Danielle had completely succumbed to panic. Why on earth had she ever suggested cooking for Gabrian? It was such a stupid idea! She'd never cooked, but she'd figured that if her house elf could do it, she'd be able to manage it easily. She was supposed to be making salad, baked chicken breast with sherry-peach sauce; a dish she'd eaten at several parties, and for dessert she wanted to bake a beautiful chocolate ganache; one of the most indulgent chocolate cakes she'd ever eaten. In short, everything was going wrong. First, her salad dressing had gone completely wrong, and while trying to fix that, she'd forgotten to put on the chicken, and had rushed it. Danielle, forgetting that she knew nothing about muggle cooking, couldn't figure out how to "bake" a chicken, and had accidentally burnt it. The cake had been the final straw. It was all so messy and her new apron was ruined, and now it was too late, and Gabrian would be here soon. She was wearing the perfect dress, but the steam in the kitchen had made her hair explode. She looked terrible, and was on the verge of collapsing when she heard Gabrian's voice.

"No, no no!" She cried, lifting a saucepan and hiding her face as she fled the room, which was in an absolute state. "Go away, just go! You're not allowed to be here!" She groaned, coming into the sitting room; pristine and white; peeking at him from behind the pan. "Just leave, you horrid boy!" She yelled, dropping the pan and glaring at him. Why had she even tried this? Menial tasks were obviously not her style, but she'd wanted to do something nice for Gabrian. Nice! Oh for Merlin's sake, she even sounded like an idiot in her own head. Realising that he could now see her, she ran to the bathroom, hands clutched to her head. "My hair!" She screeched, looking in the mirror, and searching for a comb frantically. "Oh Merlin! Why did I do this? She exclaimed, brushing through her hair angrily.

Out of Character:

It's perfect.

 

[Gabrian Raven]

Gabrian had not expected what he was about to see. Maybe the house in a little bit of mess. Maybe Danielle a little bit upset. And maybe a little smell of burnt ingredients. However everything was much, much worse. Gabrian couldn't begin to fathom what would have to be done in order to fix all of this. He could smell something had been burnt, and what little he saw of the kitchen, he decided that perhaps he should not go in there any time soon. It smelt of burnt chicken and he was sure he saw something splattered on the wall. However, the most surprising thing from all of this was the state Danielle was in. Usually, she was a very collected, classy girl. Right now, however, she looked more rattled and skittish than a niffler in a field of shiny objects. Her dress looked lovely at least, however, what little he saw of her hair, he doubted it was in a good state.

Gabrian stood up abruptly when Danielle began yelling at him. She was obviously distressed, so he took nothing to heart. "Danielle-" he folded his arms across his chest as she yelled. He wasn't going anywhere and that was something she was going to have to put up with. When she ran away, Gabrian followed her and gently took the brush from her hand, before she ended up tearing her hair out. He lightly combed it, and looked at her through the mirror. "Calm down.We must remain calm." He stated. "You look beautiful. How about we go out to eat instead, hmm? I have my portkey back to Italy, or we can go to a restaurant here instead. It's your choice."
​

 

[Danielle Raven]

Danielle could feel herself regretting every word she said as she shouted at Gabrian, and yet she couldn't stop. "Oh Merlin." She groaned as he spoke. As it got to be too much, seeing him standing there looking perfect, she was gglad of the solace of the bathroom. When he took the brush from her hands, she couldn't help, but smile. He suggested she remain calm and she simply had to laugh. "Calm? Me? I'm Danielle Howard, have we met?" She screeched, turning around as he finished, and looking him in the eye. "It was supposed to go well, and cooking was supposed to be easy. I mean the D@mn house-elf does it! It all just went wrong, and then all the steam blew up my hair" she exclaimed, breathing deeply, her hands on her hips. She was calming down a bit now, and realised that her behaviour had probably been a bit ridiculous. It took her a couple of moments, but she eventually managed to choke out an apology; "... Sorry..." she murmured, looking down. Admitting being wrong had never been Danielle's strong point.

His suggestion threw her for a moment, and she found herself smiling. She never smiled, her features were a permanent pout, but she'd found herself smiling more and more recently. "That would probably be best. I'd prefer to stay around here; Portkeys never do much for one's appetite." she replied, after some thought. "I cannot believe you just brushed my hair Gabrian." she laughed, leaning up to kiss him. "I think this will be my first and last attempt at making you dinner, if you don't mind.. Danton was right, I should've gotten the house-elf to prepare the dinner, and you'd have been none the wiser. I simply couldn't admit defeat." she shrugged, and just like that she'd forgotten the incident. Danielle had always had that disconcerting ability to forgive her own mistakes without much ado. She'd never been as forgiving with other people.

 

[Gabrian Raven]

I cry because of my lateness.

Gabrian chuckled as he ran the brush carefully through Danielle's hair. He decided to remain silent as it was best not to further fuel her anxiety - or would this be considered anger? The blonde was not sure, but he knew that he did not want to further upset her as it was. He did, however, find her previous outburst to have been rather humorous. Personally, the pure blood did not see Danielle as the irrational type. Perhaps a little passionate, but there was nothing wrong with passion, in his opinion. As she continued fretted, Gabrian put the brush down and looking at her. Of course house elves could do such things, it was their job - the least the little critters could do was do their job correctly. If they couldn't cook, then there would be no point in having them, and it would be best to treat the creatures as they did with centaurs and all that other magical riff-raff, with further distain and setting land aside for them so they would never be bothering the magical community at large. But as it happens, it was their place to serve and serve they shall.

He smiled back at her slightly, and nodded his head. "As you wish," he responded. He agreed with her, she should not cook next time. It seemed that if they wanted to do anything like this again, perhaps it should be Gabrian in the kitchen cooking something for her. He was capable of cooking a few dishes, as his mother's worst thought would have been for him to not be able to care for himself once he moved. "It's fine. House elves have their place - to do things for us. If we had to waste our time with cooking dinner..." he placed his hand affectionately on her hip and kissed her cheek. "We wouldn't be able to do important things."
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[Danielle Raven]

Danielle leaned back and closed her eyes, finding she actually liked the feel of the brush running through her hair. When she was very, very young; she remembered her Mother brushing her hair, but then she'd gone off with her Father again. It had never really occurred to Danielle that her home situation was strange, not until they'd grown closer to her cousins. Well, Danton had, and Dani went with him because she didn't know where else to go. their parents were always present, and that was partially where her hatred for Hayley came from. Hayley was so loved, as was Casper. Even her twin preferred Hayley, and donovan was never around any more. He had his own family now. She'd never known what that was like. They had to fight for any attention when their parents were home, and they basically raised themselves, with a smattering of nannies whom they quickly scared away. She felt silent, leaning back into Gabrian and for a moment, just enjoying him being there, and looking up into his eyes, her frown forming a crease between her eyes. Why was he here? Why did he care at all? It made no sense. She was used to men being initially attracted to her, but nobody ever stayed. She was always just a bit too scary for them.

Danielle found herself smiling up at him. "You're so.... calm." she mused. She doubted Gabrian would ever go into a rage the way she did, or completely lose control. Somehow though, she still found him interesting; which completely threw her. "I do wish. There's a restaurant about five minutes walk away; run by wizards of course. French cuisine okay?" she asked, placing her hands on his chest and looking up into his eyes. He was so tall. She laughed as he kissed her. "That sounds promising." she giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. she'd never actually hugged anyone other than Danton before, and her own actions completely shocked her, and she drew away quickly. "Um, shall we go then?" she smiled, glancing in the mirror to make sure that her hair was okay. Gabrian had done quite a good job actually.