First impressions

[color=333366]What had they been talking about? Alexavier frowned lightly, trying to remember. Oh... Right.

Well, he was an idiot. Not that that was anything new, of course... "Um." He announced, quite eloquently, considering the situation, pausing a second and then "any questions I can ask that don't immediately cause me to stick my foot halfway down my throat?" He glanced down at steel-toed boots, hoping for the sake of his relatively small mouth that there were. [/color]

[color=333366]"Actually leaving, or leaving-cause-I-have-to-get-away-from-this-annoying-guy leaving?" He frowned, head tilting to the side in question. "If it's the first, I'd be delighted, but I fear you'd rip my head off if it was the latter and I insisted on coming."[/color]

[color=333366]"Keen." Alexavier laughed lightly at the word, stooping down and slinging an old backpack over his shoulder before turning back and motioning for her to go first. "Although I doubt I'd have the heart to kill you - it'd be a shame to do away with the first even slightly mercurial person in this academy." She'd probably take offence, he decided, and sighed lightly. He liked unpredictability, and the quality seemed scarce from what he'd seen of the school.

"How old are you?" He questioned suddenly, walking a few steps behind the girl as the staircase was too narrow for two people to stand side by side without being unpleasantly squished together. "Not to be rude, that is..."[/color]

[color=333366]All his life, people had told him how good he was at talking to people. He'd never really believed them, but now it was even more obvious then ever that it was all part of a cruel joke from the start. He shrugged, squinting sadly out a window and announcing "sixteen. As well. Seventeen in a month or so..." He glanced at one of his watches as if it would tell him, sighed, and shrugged although she couldn't see him.[/color]

[color=333366]"Hmm." He scratched an ear thoughtfully. "Well, I'm extremely emotionally stunted, often give awful first impressions, and not very good at talking." A pause, and then "and I don't do hugs." he added, nodding to confirm this.

"Or did you mean 'I've got two brothers, love horses' sort of information?" He paused, shrugging. "No matter. I like you enough that I’d have to warn you of my appalling personality fairly soon anyway."

A pause, and he grinned lightly. "What about you?"[/color]

[color=333366]Alexavier held up a finger to stop her from saying more, although she couldn't see it. "I didn't say it was weird. I said it was appalling. Annoying. Blunt." A pause. "Awkward."

Awkward, now that he thought about it, described his personality - his life - very well. He drifted off into silence for a few moments, suddenly seeming to process what she'd said beforehand and "I've never had eggnog." he said, deciding anyway that if she said it was good, then it most likely was. "And it seems these days, most everyone thinks themselves better then everyone else." [/color]

[color=333366]Alexavier paused on the steps, all hint of joking gone out of his voice. "Ella. Do not let anyone tell you that you're not worth anything. Including yourself." A frown furrowed his brow, more then a few unwanted memories slipping through his brain.

He pushed the thoughts out of his head, his lips twitching back into a self mocking grin although an almost invisible cloud of worry was still present in his eyes. "Anyway, I didn't mean that about you... Just everyone else here, is all. Bad at talking, remember?" He pointed to himself with one finger, wishing that he'd been given the gift of talking without insulting someone instead of the worthless powers he had instead.[/color]

[color=333366]"No." He sighed. "It was my fault. I'm like that. It's called being an idiot." He fell silent, knowing she was upset, wishing she didn't feel as if she had to act like she wasn't. He really couldn't expect any different from her - no matter what it felt like, no matter what he would have liked, she'd just met him today, and there was no way anyone could trust someone in that time period.

They'd reached a landing in the stairs, and he was able to see her; although in all honesty that only made the slightly unsettling instinct to protect her even stronger. "You don't need to pretend around me. You don't need to act like you're having a great time even though you aren't, or pretend that you don't hate the color black just because I happen to love it; and you don't have to act like you're feeling fine when it's obvious you're not." He sighed, rolled his eyes. "Stupid and annoyingly affectionate, perhaps. But true nonetheless." [/color]

[color=333366]Well, this was wonderful. She was so upset, so surprised at his, his... His idiotic display of affection that she couldn't even think of anything to say. He raised his hands, a sheepish look on his face. "Look, just for-"

And then she hugged him.
He didn't have time to react, to bash her head in or to return the gesture before she pulled back, as if she just realized what she'd done. The odd part was, if he had it would more likely be the latter then the former. And, yeah, he hated any and all affection, be it good or bad, but...

He coughed, raising an eyebrow and blushing in a rather obvious manner. There was something about the girl that made him lose any shred of confidence he might have had tucked away somewhere, and made him feel like bashing his head against the wall if only to stop the stream of idiocy that was spilling out of his mouth. And still, he'd rather stand around acting like an idiot then go and... Well, not act like an idiot. "Ah, it's... No problem." His hand twirled in the air absent mindedly - he was concentrating more on her eyes, and how for once they seemed to match her expression. He was also noticing for the first time that they were green. "Anytime." [/color]

[color=333366]He blushed again, hating himself for it and pushing it away. "I can't imagine why..." He tilted his head to the side in thought. "I don't have the padding-of-the-midsection necessary to be a good hug." In fact, one blunt enough might call him downright skinny. Ah well. He shrugged, mulling this over.

"Or were you surprised I was so... compliant? You did surprise me, you know." He winked amicably, a habit he'd picked up from his father. Even if she hadn't, he doubted he'd have done any different - a fact somewhat odd to the young male. [/color]