Sorry About the Dress

[Damon Williams]

It was a a rather cloudy day today, as it usually was. England seemed to hate giving the blonde sunshine to enjoy. Damon sighed and swung his jacket over his back. It was a quiet day, there was barely any people on the street. Damon loved to walk and do other muggle stuff. Apparating was just so mainstream and boring. He didn't leave his crazy mother to just continue living like a wizard. Muggles were fun! Damon was sure he couldn't live life as a solely magical person. The muggle world was too interesting. Like driving cars, driving cars were a lot of fun. Sometimes, Damon would discover that he had a little bit of a lead foot, but he just made sure to keep himself under control. Damon looked up when he heard a rumbling sound. That didn't sound too good. Surely it wasn't going to rain? He couldn't bare to walk home in the rain! His hand passed over the wand he kept hidden in his backpocket. His mother often warned him about doing that. 'You'll blow you bottom off, Damon!' She's say. 'Don't come home crying to me when it happens young man!' She was such a worry-wart.

It began to pour heavily and Damon frowned deeply. He was only a few blocks from his home. A cheeky smile grew on his face and he began to run in the rain. It was coming down heavily, mud was already starting to form on the grass and large puddles were growing on the ground. Damon ran through the puddles and held his hand out. He stopped after a moment and stood in the rain. His sighed blissfully and closed his eyes. One was never truly alive until they stood in the rain for a bit. He was well aware that he was getting soaked, but that was no matter. It was called magic. Magic could do a lot for him. When the rain started to go very cold, however, Damon shivered and decided to return to running. He was soaked enough. Throwing his jacket over his head, he held the jacket to try and shield himself. His boots splashed on the pavement and he still wore a grin on his face. However, when he turned a corner, he hit something and stopped. He looked around and his face dropped. He had ran into a woman. Oopsay. "Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?" He chewed his lip. She was going to be covered in mud from the grass and pavement. Now he felt horrible and felt his stomach tingling. Hopefully he wouldn't throw up on this girl.​

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[Clarisse Richards]

It was quite a long day from work and Clarisse wasn't so very sure whether to feel relieved or sad about it. She had been baking and making sweets and pastries for hours, but she never seem to get too tired of it. It was always so fun to do and truth be told, fun to snag a few bites as well. As soon as she got off of work, she changed back to her casual clothes. It was a nice day, even if it was rather cloudy. She grabbed her purse, making sure that she had enough money and her wand still inside. She never left the house without her wand, you never know when one may need it. As soon as she was done, she bade goodbye to her workmates and left the shop with a smile.

It was quite a long way from home, but Clarisse didn't mind walking all the way back, after all, it would save money and she could take detours and take a look around the place. Soon enough though, much to her luck, it began to rain, and as much as she wanted to take a walk in the rain, she couldn't afford to get sick with work tomorrow. She began to run through the rain towards her home. When she continued to run, she failed to notice another person pass by. She bumped into him, and since she seemed to be lighter, Clarisse was the one who fell into the mud, and unfortunately get dirty in the mud. She sat up and looked at the one whom she bumped into, a young man it seemed. "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about," she smiles and stands up, facing the man in front of her.

 

[Damon Williams]

Damon's face twisted. He tried to remain calm, but it was difficult. Women were something he never was good at. They were odd. Much to his lack, this one was pretty, and smaller than him and lighter than him and now covered in mud. Why did this happen to him? He sighed quietly to himself and helped her up. She was wearing a nice dress too, and it was completely, and totally destroyed. Well, not completely destroyed, but it'd take magic or some serious washing to get that stuff out. Good job Damon. Good job. She also said that it was 'nothing to worry about'. Was she crazy, or just really nice? This was certainly something to worry about. He couldn't just let her go where ever she was going dressed like that. She had mud all over her. Damon shook his head and tried his best to keep his face pleasant. "I'm really sorry. I should have been more careful. You can't walk around with mud all over you. I'll buy you a new dress, or let you take a shower at my place or something." Being as socially awkward and nervous around women as dear Damon was, he neglected to realise that inviting a woman one had just met on the street back to your house so she can take a shower was not the 'done' thing. It was usually quite strange to suggest such a thing. But Damon's suggestion was completely innocent.

Waiting for her reply, Damon examined the woman. She didn't seem to have any major injuries or anything, though she probably had scrapes. He could discretely heal those without her realising if he tried, but they'd have to be in a more private area. He handed his jacket to her, deciding that she needed it far more than him. He knew her face. It irritated him to know end, until he remembered Tuesday evening, when he was craving some pastry and there was only one shop around here. He was quite sure this woman worked there. "I think I know you... the woman from the pastry shop, yes? I love your pastries!" His face brightened, while his stomach churned uncomfortably. He really needed to sit down or get some water or something. This could be done later. "Anyway, have my jacket to protect you from the rain a little. I don't need it."​

 

[Clarisse Richards]

Clarisse couldn't believe how much of a klutz she was for failing to notice a man coming straight at her, then bumping to him and unfortunately falling into the muddy ground. She was quite thankful that it seemed like the one she bumped into was a kind man, and not some criminal waiting behind the shadows. She let him help her stand up as she examined her dress. "Nothing magic can't fix," she thought to herself as she turned to look at the man who began to apologize. "No, no... It's okay, really. It's dark and raining, it would have been hard for either of us to spot each other in this condition, especially in a corner," she began to explain to him. The pastry chef knew that the man didn't have to apologize, after all it was partly her own fault too. "I don't want to trouble you. But, I guess I could use some place to dry myself up, I doubt my apartment's landlord would let me in like this... He's very strict," she said with a smile and a slight nod, accepting the help he could offer.

Clarisse was quite surprised as the man had handed his jacket over to her. She was wet already and there was nothing to do about it, but he was more dry than her and probably needed more protection than herself. She hesitantly took it, deciding to hand it back after a few moments of exchanging words. It was quite surprising that the man in front of her knew her because of her occupation, and not only that, he liked her works. Clarisse had grown a slight reddening in her cheeks as it was the first time that one has expressed the joy he has found in her work. "Yes, I work at the nearby pastry shop... Thank you!" she said with a cheerful smile. She was just about to hand the jacket back over until the man had spoken such kind words that she couldn't decline his offer. "T-thank you," she said softly as she covered her head with the jacket.

 

[Damon Williams]

Damon was relieved to find that she was still being nice. This was all just a big, horrible mess. He felt terrible. Absolutely terrible. He promised himself to buy her a new outfit after she got cleaned up. He did have some clothes back at his home, but that wasn't good enough. Damon shook his head. There was no way she was going to wiggle her way out of this. It was his fault. He knew it and he was sure she knew it, she was probably too nice to say otherwise. "I should have been keeping an eye out. There are quicker ways to get to places. I should have been more careful." He then shook his head, standing out here arguing was not going to help either of them, was it? He smiled weakly, the uneasy feeling in his stomach getting worse. He really disliked talking to women. They just always made him feel uncomfortable. He liked to blame this on his mother. She was virtually a dragon. "I'm sorry, I'm arguing with you. We should drop this, or both of us will catch a cold." The rain was only getting worse. It wasn't going to stop being cold just for them.

Damon nodded when she agreed to come to his place. It was settled then. He motioned for her walk walk with him and quickly began walking. He made sure she could keep up with him. There were so many puddles. He nearly slipped several times. "I live just up there." He pointed to an apartment block up ahead. It was quite clean because it was on the upper side of town. He smiled weakly as she spoke. They were amazing pastries, how could he not like them? Damon was not one for muggle food, but that food was amazing and the reason why he had to exercise so much. He walked up the steps, nearly falling flat on his butt from the water. He smiled meakly, his cheeks turning rosy. Awkward. He hurriedly opened the door and led her up the stairs to the third floor. He opened the first door in sight and let her into a rather large apartment. There were five doors that could be counted. Three led to bedrooms, while two were the bathrooms. He gestured to the closest. "Just go in there and get cleaned up, I'll find you some clothes."

When she went into the bathroom, Damon quickly ran to the other bathroom to throw up. The day was just too much for him. With an irritated sigh, he got a new change of clothes in his bedroom and walked into the room of Sofia. She was out, in fact, she rarely came back these days. She looked about the size of the girl, maybe a little taller. "The clothes are hanging on the door!" He called, placing some clothes on the handle and evacuating to the dining room. He needed some space.
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[Clarisse Richards]

Clarisse couldn't help but smile at the man's insistence. Surely he wasn't the only one at fault, if she were careful, she could have avoided bumping in to him too. And when he insisted some more, Clarisse couldn't help but give up. "Okay, okay, I surrender. Your fault," she said in between giggles. "But next time something happens, it's my fault," she muttered mostly to herself as she looked at him, apologizing to her. Clarisse felt a little guilty that the man had to argue with her about who was at fault. And the boy was right. They had to get out of the rain or they'd both be bedridden the whole day when tomorrow comes. "Apology accepted," she said with a smile on her face.

Clarisse followed the man, trying not to stay to far away. The lady almost had no sense of direction and it would be easy for her to get lost in a place she had never been to before, including the man's apartment. She tried her best to walk carefully, not minding if she got wet by the puddles, as long as she could be safe from slipping again. After all the guy might just blame himself again, although, Clarisse was quite surprised when he almost slipped. "Are you okay?" she asked in a hurry, seeming like panicking. She smiled a small smile as she knew that he was alright.

As soon as they entered the apartment, Clarisse was amazed. It was such a nice place, and had fairly enough space too. She bowed her head slightly, "Thank you so much," and went to the bathroom which he gestured to. She did this in a hurry as to not get the floor dirty and muddy. As soon as she was in the bathroom, Clarisse took deep breaths and her face began to flash a bit of red. "I'm in a man's house! What the heck were you thinking, Clarisse?!" she yelled in her head to herself. The man seemed kind enough though, and Clarisse knew it was mostly her fault why he felt obligated to bring her to his apartment. After calming herself a bit, Clarisse stepped out of her clothes and took a short bath.

After her bath, Clarisse dried and wrapped herself with the towel in the bathroom, she would have to clean it later. After this task she went back to her dirty clothes and took a look at it. There was no hope for it no matter what kind of laundry she would do with it, she'd have to use magic. Clarisse quickly grabbed her purse and took her wand. "Scourgify," she whispered, wand pointed at all her clothes and shoes. Soon enough, results were seen. Her clothes were as good as new. She would have to keep it right away, it would be dangerous if the man were a muggle. She quickly put on her underwear and examined herself for injuries, luckily, they were only scratches and scrapes on her wrist and hands from the fall. "Episkey," she said as she pointed her wand at the minor injuries. The man didn't need to see that.

Clarisse almost flinched when he heard the man's voice informing her there were clean clothes hanging on the door. She went towards the door and opened it slightly, just enough for her small hand to take away the clothes and close the door afterwards. She quickly dressed up the man had provided her, they fitted her nicely and she was grateful for that. She combed her hair and made sure that she cleaned the towel with magic before keeping her wand in her purse and folding the dress neatly and making it fit in the purse too. After she was done, she came out of the bathroom and headed for the living room, "Thank you for the clothes and letting me use the bath," she told the man with a shy smile on her face.

 

[Damon Williams]

</FONT>

<FONT font="Georgia">Damon shook his head at the logic of automatically playing to lay blame for something that had not happened. But it was just better to hold his tongue. He was used to doing that, it was the only thing he could do back home. However, the blonde still felt incredibly sick. Damon was not a people person, in all honesty. People made him feel nervous because he was terrified of appearing weird around them. Women just made him feel worse, because they were usually judgmental and easily annoyed. Nearly every woman he knew was like that. His mother, sister's, cousin's and aunts were all like that. Damon sank a little into his chair and sighed. What was he going to do now? There was some stranger in his house. He was truly pathetic. Here he was, a twenty-one year old wizard. He should be living his life, being stupid, getting into fights and doing stuff that other twenty-one year old's did. He didn't know a person alive that actively threw up because a woman was in the same area of them. His brother was right. He was weird. Damon shifted uncomfortably and pulled his wand from his pocket. Sometimes, it was inconvenient to have a wand. He couldn't sit properly unless he took it from his pocket, and if he did that in public around muggles, he'd cop a few weird looks. It was probably extremely difficult to explain to someone why you have a stick in your pocket. He twirled his wand between his fingers and sighed. Sometimes, magic was a bit of a chore to deal with, that was his opinion.

Damon was lost in thought. This tended to happen when he was alone in the apartment. However, when his thoughts were interrupted, he jumped. He found the source and his eyes widened, he thought that he would have been able to hear the woman before she entered the lounge room. He glanced at his wand, and then her. Crap. He smiled weakly and tossed his wand behind the couch. Good one, Damon. Like she wouldn't have seen that. "Ohh, hey... you're finished? Um..." He stood up and looked around for something to do. He scratched the back of his head. He'd stepped in it, big time. There was a law against this wasn't there? Muggles weren't supposed to be told about magic were they? "Hi..." What else was he supposed to do? He'd rather her think he was clinically insane, than know he was a wizard. hopefully she'd just stare at him and walk away slowly, thus ending the near tangible, awkward silence that was now threatening to strangle him.​

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[Clarisse Richards]

Clarisse just stared for a bit. She couldn't believe what she saw. Was that a wand? she asked herself. It was quite nerve-wrecking in her thoughts. She couldn't decipher whether the man in front of her right now is a wizard or just some crazy guy holding a stick and then throwing it away. The first seemed likely but the second was just plain insane for an idea. Surely, who would be holding a stick in their own house? A stick! The woman's mind was screaming as she wondered if the man with her right now was magical, just like her. "Y-yeah," Clarisse awkwardly replied to the man whom she deemed was having a hard time too it seemed.

After moments of debate in her head, Clarisse had decided to pretend that she did not see the man's 'stick' for a while and maybe she could find out about it soon or in a while. The pastry chef smiled a small smile as the man had greeted her and she nodded her head before extending her arm and hand in a welcoming way. "Hey," she greeted. "I'm Clarisse, by the way," the woman smiled as she introduced herself. She had to wonder if she and this guy would be able to get along, but she didn't doubt that they would. Well, in her part anyway.

 

[Damon Williams]

Damon could just crawl up and die. It would be so much simpler to just drop dead now than suffer through this. She obviously thought he was a sociopath, and now she was in his house. Was he being creepy just staring at her like a deer staring into headlights? He could almost feel the oxygen leaving the room around him. It was like he was choking or something - until he realised he actually wasn't breathing. He gasped for air and coughed slightly, sitting on the lounge. Merlin, that must have been attractive. He looked up when she said her name. Clarisse was a nice name - really pretty and sweet sounding. "Nice to meet you Clarisse - I'm Damon Williams." He nearly slapped himself in the face when he realised that he hadn't even introduced himself properly. His mother would be wringing his neck for his stupidity.

And then the awkward silence returned. He twiddled his thumbs for a moment, before giving her a meaningful look. "I'll be back in a moment." he was sure he was going to be sick again. He almost ran to the bathroom and crashed onto the floor in front of the bowl. However, his stomach seemed to settle and he sighed, getting back up and leaning on the door frame of the bathroom. He poked his head out of the door, before slowly returning to the lounge room. "So... is there anywhere you need to be - because if there isn't then you can hang here if you want. I mean-" he scratched the back of his neck. Was he being creepy. "Yeah... I have food. You want food?"​

 

[Clarisse Richards]

While Clarisse did feel a little uncomfortable with the man's staring she utterly didn't mind it at all. She just stood there quite awkwardly, not exactly knowing what to do. It was her first time in a stranger's house even more so, a man's house and it was a new experience for her as she wasn't really sure on how she needed to act during these moments. She was quite surprised though when he suddenly coughed. Was there something on her face? Did she look funny? These thoughts were running through her mind. Gods this was hard. However, when he looked up at her she gave a small and genuine smile. "It's nice to meet you to Damon," she said with a smile. It was a nice name.

Risa was quite surprised when Damon suddenly excused himself. No doubt she was worried, but she didn't want to show it to him for all the woman can do was stay put and not cause anymore trouble for the young man. "Oh, alright," she said as she watched him leave. Anyone might have expected her to roamed around the lounge, but being who she is, she just remained to where the man had left her and she was still there when the man had arrived. "Are you okay?" she asked quite worriedly and was quite surprised by his sudden questions. "Oh no, I'm not in a hurry or anything," she hurriedly said and could only smile when he said that she could stay. "Food would be great," she said with a huge smile on her face in appreciation for the man that she already found and deemed to be cute.

 

[Damon Williams]

Damon smiled awkwardly. Maybe if he survived through this without completely screwing up, the woman would not decided to get the police on him for being weird. He ran his fingers through his hair. Was he going bald? He felt like her was going bald? Was the stress of everything making him go bald? By Merlin, Damon did not want to go bald at a time like this. "Nice to meet you too, Clarisse." And then Damon quickly turned around, in order to slap himself silly. He had already said that. All introductions were done, and he just repeated himself like some sort of weird parrot. He jumped back around and nodded frantically in order to try and fix his mistake. "I mean, you have a nice name that I'm happy to have met... yeah, that wasn't much better, was it?" He sighed. Then, his eyes widened by a considerable amount. "Fine, I'm fine. I'm so fine. I mean, not that kind of fine. Just fine. I'm not stuck-up or self-absorbed or anything. I think I'm fine. Like completely healthy kind of fine because I'm completely fine in a health sort of way. I'm fine." He was panicking, and it showed. He placed his hand on his stomach and held up his finger. "Just one moment." He then proceeded to run back to the bathroom and finish what he had first started. He washed his mouth out and took some tic-tacs to fix his breath, before returning to the lounge room like a nervous puppy. "Hi..." he breathed, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"FOOD! Yes, I'll get you some food." Damon then proceeded to run and vault over the bench into the kitchen with the reflexes of a man that had done such a thing numerous times. "I'll get you food - we have lots of food." He said, digging through the cupboard and pulling out all sorts of food. He began stacking the food on the bench as he named them. "We've got apples, oranges, bananas, cherries, grapes, noodles - three different types of noodles - spaghetti, blue cheese, tasty cheese, string cheese, micro cheese, parmesan cheese, chilli cheese, and dairy cheese." He took a breathe and then started on the cooked meat and meat that he could cook from the freezer. "We have stroganoff, chilli chicken, plain chicken, honey chicken, honey soy chicken, chicken thighs, chicken fillets, crunchy fish, fish fingers. We have chocolate, mostly dairy..." He moved to the other side of the kitchen to tinned food. "We have tinned peas, tinned pineapple, tinned tomatoes, tinned potatoes, tinned fruit salad, tinned corn, tinned carrots, tinned beans and tinned beetroot." he then dumped a huge bowl of lollies on the counter. "And lollies." In order to calm himself, he popped a lolly in his mouth. "And bread and butter with devon."​

 

[Clarisse Richards]

Clarisse couldn't help but smile at this man. It was not a forced one nor was it a business smile. It was completely genuine and of pure happiness. It was like she was enjoying herself around the man named Damon. Although there were quite some times when they were awkward around each other and were not exactly sure of what they were to do, she was finding the man to be quite... attractive. Risa couldn't help but mentally slap herself. Seriously? You just met the guy and you find him attractive? He really is cute though, her thoughts were in turmoil until she had finally given in and decided to push those thoughts to the very back of her mind. She would deal with those later on. When she wasn't in Damon's house. Or when she wasn't with Damon. Clarisse couldn't help but blink multiple of times as the man spoke without breathing. At least it seemed that he said it all in one breath. The woman then once again stood awkwardly within the lounge room as he once again left her to deal with some business which she figured he would much rather not let her know. When he came back, Risa's eyes lit with delight and replied to him with a gentle smile. "Hi..."

As Damon had suddenly announced that he was to get some food, Clarisse couldn't help but follow him into the kitchen. She watched as he pulled out various types of food and she couldn't help but stifle a giggle that was threatening to escape past her lips. It seemed that every type of food available within the kitchen was being brought out by the man and it was then that it came to Risa's mind that he was probably nervous. She didn't have a clue why though. As soon as the man had deemed every single food in stock to be available, Clarisse smiled at Damon and said to him sincerely, "There really is no need for you to be nervous. I am the intruder here after all." She was worried that the man would just faint on her or something because of the amount of nervousness he was feeling. She looked at all the food he brought out before taking one apple and a lolly. "Lollies and an apple are good," she said as she too ate a piece of lolly as she looked at him, not noticing that she was already staring and admiring his features.