baby steps

Ania had scrapped the last few pages of her schoolwork in frustration. She had decided to focus on bettering her grades before her social life, and the lack of the latter made her anxious and bored. She supposed that moderation was key in situations like these, but she had ignored rationality completely and tried to do as much as she could without breaking.
It was evening before she realised it, and her room had grown surprisingly cold and monochromatic. Everything seemed to be rather grey without another person, noise, or anything happening besides an endless flood of paperwork. Sitting back in her seat, she stood suddenly, feeling the yawning loneliness grasping at her. Grabbing only her keys, Ania scooted out the door, and was outside before she really thought about where she was going. Most of her friends were probably shut up in their dorms, not really interested in company. Standing outside for a while, she clutched her arms, not really wanting to go back inside.

Deciding that a walk could probably cure her irrational fear of returning, Ania picked a direction without thinking too hard about it. Her hands stuffed into their respective pockets, she walked quietly along the winding paths of the academy, her mind running mostly on autopilot. The drastic change of scenery drew her back, and she turned, realising that she had led herself in the direction of Hadrian's home. Biting her lip, she was a little uncertain of whether it was a good idea to come here. She knew he would probably not mind, but she didn't want to risk him already being busy.
Dragging her feet, she decided to think up an excuse as to why she came. The sun still hung in the sky — albeit barely, and she thought she could get away with a quick visit. Her worries scattered her thoughts, and she paused for a moment before knocking, telling herself that if he didn't answer within thirty seconds, he must be busy, and she would make a run for it.

Convinced that Hadrian was busy after all, Ania stepped back, jumping as something crashed against the door. Alright, he must be very busy, then. Rather alarmed now, the girl paused for a second, unsure of what step to take next. A massive inhale of breath came from the letterbox, and her hand came up to smother a giggle. She had almost forgotten how large a tiger was, and it all came back with the memory of the impressive crash. Despite his size, he wasn't much better than a puppy. Sometimes it almost seemed he identified closer to a dog than a tiger. At least he was friendly.

The door opened, and despite her worries, he didn't sound bothered by her unannounced arrival. "Good evening. I've missed you, it's boring spending time away." She raised her head a little, pushing herself into his touch for a moment. Slipping in as he stood back, she pounced, her arms wrapping around his torso as her face buried itself into his chest. Whatever melancholy she felt from being alone in her dorm was quickly dispelled. Pushing herself farther into the embrace for a moment, she dropped her arms to focus on the cat that had greeted her so loudly. Running her fingers over his head, her head tilted up and to the side. "I hope I'm not bothering you while you're busy. Nothing was happening in the dorms, it's no fun without you. "

Flattered that Hadrian would prefer her company over whatever work he might have to do, a faint tinge of pink touched her cheeks. "You look nice, too. But then, you always look nice. It's not fair, really." In a way, she was quite jealous of her boyfriend. He probably just rolled out of bed looking perfect. In retrospect now, she probably should have picked an uglier boyfriend. It was hard to compete with a boy that looked infinitely nicer than you did.

"Ah, I bet he did miss me. Poor thing never gets any attention, I bet. You should pet him more, he always looks so desperate when I'm over." Kneeling to squish the massive cat's head to her chest, Ania pressed her cheek against his fur, petting him gently. It was obvious that he was well taken care of, but teasing was much more fun. It was hot, though, and being so close to a large, warm animal was definitely not helping anything. "It is awfully hot, isn't it? What have you been doing outside?" Hadrian didn't look like the gardening type, nor the type to well, do much of anything outdoors.

Ania thought that a tiger as impressive as Altair deserved to be as spoiled as he was. Her fingers were swallowed by his neck ruff, and she worked at petting him. She couldn't suppress a giggle at the affectionate lick, and winced inside at what the large cat's barbed tongue must feel like. A housecat's tongue wasn't too terrible, probably because of the size, but a tiger's would probably be much more sandpaper-y.

With a final pat to her friend, Ania stood once more. "Swimming?" The mention of swimming brought back those disastrous lessons she had tried to take from the new teacher to campus those months ago. "You know, you probably owe me a swimming lesson. That poor swim teacher can't even be within a few hundred yards of me. I don't think I've ever seen him since that incident, actually. You must have scared him off. I swear, he sees me and runs back to where he came." Smiling crookedly up at Hadrian, she drew closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. "You're far too scary for your own good."

"You were awfully terrifying in that room. Even I was a bit scared; especially when Altair growled. He was sort of creepy, I do admit. He touched my butt." She was sort of glad that her boyfriend had came to the rescue on that one. She wasn't really sure how to face a teacher hitting on her; especially a very old teacher.

"Yes! If you don't mind teaching me, of course. I could probably learn on my own if I tried, but. I think it would be more fun with you." She wanted to go now, though, excited by the prospect of finally being able to finish her swimming lessons. Grabbing hold of Hadrian's hand, she tugged him back towards the pool, bursting back into the outdoors. Now that she was out here, she realised she hadn't actually come prepared for a lesson. "Oh, um. I don't have a swim suit, would it be too strange to just ..." Plucking uncertainly at her shirt, Ania considered it. It wasn't like underwear was too different from swim suits. Same shape and all, mostly.