Flirtation

[Danielle Raven]

Danielle Howard was never precisely on time, depending on her humour. She always arrived either early, or late. For work, she was usually early, if it was an important shoot, but an advertisement, or something trivial; she was usually late for. However, tonight was different. She felt out of sorts. Never in a thousand years would she have pictured herself dropping everything to apparate to Italy, for some man. Admittedly, it was no skin off her nose to apparate here, it took seconds, but it was the principle of the thing. She was surprised at herself. Danton would have laughed if he'd known, but she had a much more private life since she'd moved out of the manor. She'd bought herself a townhouse in central London, which she adored, and she was loving her newfound independence. As a child, Donovan had been the one to look after her, now it was Danton, but living apart from him gave her real freedom. If she'd been living in the manor; there'd be no way she'd be going on this date.
She still couldn't believe he'd had the nerve to ask her out. Plenty of men stared. Some other models had even tried to talk her into dinner or a night out. The filthy muggles. Still, she had accepted none of them. She wasn't even sure why she had said yes to Gabrian. The excuse she gave herself was that he was interesting, and disliked muggles. A suitable candidate. There was definetly nothing beyond that.. She obviously didn't have feelings for him! The very idea was laughable. Danielle had no feelings, of course not, only greed, anger and the cold satisfaction of doing wrong.

She'd spent far too long getting ready, and had started far too early. I merely want to represent the Howard family well in the wizarding world. She had repeated; over and over. She'd ended up with an hour to spare, pacing anxiously, and playing with her necklace, almost changing outfit three times, and desperately trying not to notice how nervous she was. It came to the point where she could wait no longer, and turning on her heel found herself in a dark alley a few streets away from the restaurant he'd told her about. D@mn she was early! She made sure to walk as slowly as was humanly possible, stopping under the pretence of looking in shop windows, while really stalling for time and checking her reflection. She fiddled with her hair, and smoothed her dress. He wasn't even around and she was flustered! Conduct yourself Dani! she screamed inside her head, and chose to examine her outfit as a distraction. She'd never worn this dress out before, and she liked it. She'd worn it in a photoshoot about a month ago. She got lots of free clothes on shoots, one of the perks of her job.

Inevitably, she arrived at the restaurant, feeling anything but her usual, confident self. It looked classy, this place. Very unlike the excuse for a restaurant where they'd first met. She took a deep breath and walked inside. Soft music was playing, and there was a lovely ambiance around the place. Relaxed and understated. Yet still, it had a sense of grandeur. Just to Danielle's taste. She walked straight up to the Maître D' and told him the name; "Raven, table for two." he motioned for her to wait a moment, and she silently hoped he understood English, as she attempted to look nonchalant; her eyes scanning the room for any sign of Gabrian.

 

[Gabrian Raven]

This was Gabrian's favourite resturant. It was good to return here for such a lovely date, especially after the mortifying day he had endured. Working under some female mudblood was always a difficult thing for him to understand. However, Gabrian's love of Quidditch outweighed his disgust of mudbloods. Besides, at least he didn't have to talk to her. He simply nodded when noise came out of her mouth and hit bludgers at opponents. He didn't have to endure her useless rambling too much. Gabrian looked around the resturant in silence, observing the scenery. He was a little early, because he had to make sure that Danielle would not be left to linger around too long. He was the one to invite her here, and it was his beloved Italy, so it was his job to make sure she had a good time. Gabrian was quite relaxed, as he normally was. As a Raven, he was raised to never be flustered. Most of his siblings were like this, though there were a few black sheep in the family. However, they were either removed, or pulled back into line. He still remembered Grace. Such a pathetic exccuse for a sister. He was so happy to have heard that his father removed her from the family. He couldn't have a witch like that claiming relation to him. It would be embarrassing. A waiter approached Gabrian, and he knew the man quite well, as he was a regular to this magical resturant. Upon hearing that his English speaking guest had arrived, Gabrian stood and followed the man to where Danielle was left. She looked lovely, but a little nervous? He couldn't be sure. Reading people was not something he did often, but she didn't appear to be completely comfortable. It was probably the possible language barrier she may have endured whilst getting her. Luckily, English was a known language in Italy, though some, such as Gabrian, were more accustomed to it than others.

He bowed slightly and took her hand into his. "I'm glad you made it here safely. You look beautiful." It was a simple apparation here, once he told her where she was going. But then again, some were hopeless at apparating. However, it was weird for him to be speaking English when in his homeland. His mother must have felt the same. "Now don't be worried about anything. Everyone here will take good care of you." She didn't even have to worry about hiding magic. Obviously, Gabrian picked a nice magical resturant, seeing as they both couldn't stand muggles. His last date was with some mudblood loving woman. Five minutes into the date, Gabrian apparated away. Whether it was rude or not, he just couldn't sit through such a conversation. He led her to their table, where they were handed menu's upon sitting. Gabrian's eyes scanned the menu, before he looked up. They were in Italian, but did appear to have an English translation on them, something that was not uncommon. The pureblood had yet to find his appitite for the evening, which was quite rare. Perhaps he was coming down with something. "I hope you came to no harm when coming here. How are things in London?" London was where she lived, he was sure. She had mentioned something about it once, if he remebered correctly. He smiled a little, trying to make her comfortable.​

---

Polyvore's not working for me, so he's wearing a suit, okay?

 

[Danielle Raven]

She watched the man approach Gabrian, and unconsciously a smile broke across her face. It felt like breathe of relief, that he was actually there, that he'd come. A knot of tension in her stomach relaxed. She stood, waiting for him to come over, and forcing herself not to go to him. She merely smiled, looking kinder than one would believe possible for Danielle Kaitlyn Howard. She had never really liked a man before. She'd thought them handsome, and she'd even been charmed into a date by some of them, but she had never really been interested. Danielle had never been in love. That was part of why her brother's relationship with Hayley confused her so much. She couldn't discern the obvious; that her twin brother was helplessly in love with their cousin. She was surprised when Gabrian took her hand, and even more surprised to see that she liked it, but she simply decided to relax, and enjoy herself. "Thank you, this restaurant seems charming. you look very handsome." she replied. He did. He looked good in a suit, and his startling blue eyes looked beautiful in this light. Danielle flushed slightly at the thought, but refused to drop her gaze, to look like some shy young schoolgirl. She was beautiful, strong and confident. She knew this. Why was she nervous? Why did she have this silly little smile on her face? It felt so strange.

She allowed Gabrian to lead her to the table, and laughed aloud as he told her not to worry. "Trust me Gabrian, I am not worried." she answered, she liked saying his name. She was tempted to add that she didn't need taking care of, but deemed it rude; showing tact that her brother would never believe she possessed. She took her seat, and smiled as she was handed the menu. Say something Dani! She wanted this to go well, though she couldn't admit it. "How are you? It's been a while since I've seen you." she asked, looking through the menu, which, she noted, had English translations. Well done Gabrian. She grinned at this, for once showing her teeth in a smile. His question drew her gaze from the menu, and she maintained eye contact while answering. "I'm fine, apparating is so much easier at night, much less chance of being caught." she paused before continuing. "London is good, I've got my own townhouse now, which is excellent; further away from over-protective brothers. Work's been crazy though, the Spring and Summer shows have just ended, so I've been all over the place for shows. The clothes are wonderful, but I absolutely loathe having to work under muggles." she replied, saying much more than she had originally planned. She scanned the menu once more; "Hmm.. I think I'll have the Zucchini Risotto. How about you?" she asked, looking back to him. She knew Zucchini's were a kind of courgette, and though the carbs in the rice were probably not her best options for maintaining a slim figure; one dinner wouldn't send the weighing scales rocketing. Plus; she'd just endured two months of barely eating because of shows. She deserved something tasty.