I wouldn't know where to start

Olivia smirked, “That could prove to be interesting because so am I.” Olivia was usually surrounded by people who tempered her impulsiveness with reason so the idea of spending time with someone who might do a bit more acting and then thinking sounded exciting. Olivia shifted to lean her back against the arm of the couch as Rei joined her, her leg brushing against Rei’s and she pulled it up onto the couch between them. She felt her cheeks color as warmth spread through them at Rei’s words. “Well I’ve um…I’ve already had quite enough to drink tonight so I’d much rather have a kiss than a drink. And um…I’ve never gotten a um…a lap dance so I can’t say whether or not it would be better than a kiss so…I’ll have to stand by my previous statement.” Olivia took a sip of her drink in an effort to hide the way her cheeks continued to redden at the way Rei was looking at her.

Olivia felt dwarfed by the students around her and the Great Hall suddenly felt stifling and terrifyingly massive at the same time. She locked her eyes on the back of the Ravenclaw prefect’s head and focused all of her attention on weaving through the crowd to keep her in sight. She looked over at the sound of Rei’s voice and nodded, following her gaze up towards the vaulted ceiling high above them. She was tempted to slip her hand into Rei’s because she knew that the contact would comfort her but there was something about her new friend that made her hold back. Instead she settled for shuffling close enough to Rei that their arms brushed against each other as they took in the daunting climb ahead. Olivia had heard about the moving staircases but that didn’t stop her from jumping slightly when one started to move under her feet. This time she did reach out for Rei, steadying herself on Rei’s arm as she took a few breaths to slow her heartbeat. Some of the staircases they took didn’t move and they felt especially solid under Olivia’s slightly shaking knees. When they finally arrived outside of the Ravenclaw common room Olivia was sure that she had no idea how to get back down to the Great Hall, but that was a problem for tomorrow she was too focused on listening to the surprisingly clear voice coming out of the brass doorknocker in front of them. As soon as the Raven finished the riddle the prefect turned and asked if any of them knew the answer. Olivia was pretty sure that she did but standing there surrounded by her new classmates she knew there was no way she’d be able to say anything at all.

“There is a raven doorknocker that guards our common room…though that is significantly less exciting than a dragon. And I suppose it doesn’t so much guard us as make us answer a riddle to get in. So it’s more like a sphinx than a dragon,” Olivia frowned, realizing that this all might be a lot less interesting to Rei than it was to her. Olivia nodded, “I hope you’re better at flying than I am, I’d hate for both of us to look ridiculous. Though I doubt you’re as clumsy as I am, you don’t look clumsy…not that I have much information to judge that on…sorry, there was a compliment buried in there somewhere,” Olivia blushed and pushed the crumbs around her plate with the piece of bread she was still holding. Everyone around them seemed to be started to finish their food, maybe that meant they’d be going up to the dorm soon. She hoped that was the case, she was amazed she’d managed to talk to Rei for this long without completely embarrassing herself but if she kept talking she was sure she’d manage it soon enough.

Olivia shook her head, “That’s not entirely true. I would have loved to take you on a date if I’d thought there was any chance you’d ever want to go out with me. I can assure you that most of the reasons I never told you I was interested boiled down to me thinking you wouldn’t want to know.” Olivia grinned down at Rei and shrugged, “Oh well they can be anything really. Being at Hogwarts severely limits our options though. But we’ve already done this incredibly out of order so I don’t think we can manage a standard first date anyways. This might be the first time since we…well you…um, it’s been a while since we did anything alone besides sex.” Olivia looked down at Rei and ran her fingers over her skin, “The dance kind of felt like a date.”

Olivia smirked as she watched Rei’s eyes trail over her, she’d always loved it when Rei looked at her that way. Even when that sort of look had made her blush all the way to her collarbone she’d still loved the fact that Rei was looking at her. But Olivia never could have imagined that Rtes.ei would be looking at her like that after spending the night in her bed. Olivia grinned, “That’s better. Don’t worry we’ll do the things you like too,” she leaned forward and pressed another kiss to Rei’s neck before leaning back and pressing one to her lips. Olivia continued frowning and shook her head, “That’s not true. You just have to want to be the kind of girl who lets people take you on dates.” Olivia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and fidgeted slightly, “Do you um…do you want to go on a date?”

Olivia smiled, “Well you’re welcome to talk to me about it if you’d like. You don’t have to though, I know how hard it is to talk about things that are that personal.” Olivia shrugged, “But that’s unavoidable, this was avoidable. You put yourself in a potentially difficult situation to spend time with me, you definitely didn’t need to do that.” Olivia shook her head, “Don’t be ridiculous. What could be better than a kiss? Besides, you didn’t even know it was my birthday. There are three people in the world who give me birthday presents and two of them live with me.” She laughed and grinned up at Rei, “Well at least you’re aware that I’m weird. I’d be pretty disappointed if you hadn’t noticed. Because if you hadn’t then that’d mean that you don’t like me for the right reasons.” Olivia squeezed Rei’s hand back and smiled, “Thank you.” Then she walked around Rei, gently tugging on her hand, “Come on, we should sit down.” She grabbed her lemonade before moving into the living room and sitting on the couch.

Olivia put her hand on Rei’s cheek, “Hey, I know you do. You were more honest with me last night than you’ve ever been before, it was a lot. We’ll get there.” Olivia ran her thumb across Rei’s cheek and leaned forward to press a kiss to Rei’s other cheek. She smirked as Rei grabbed her hips, “You’re intentions have never been purely honorable. You are insatiable and incredibly attracted to me, don’t try to pretend you weren’t thinking about sex.” Olivia bite her lip, “I know I was thinking about it.” Her face softened slightly, “But I have to say I can’t remember the last time I felt as good as I did curled up in your arms.” Olivia smiled and pressed a kiss to Rei’s palm against her face. She opened her mouth and made an indignant noise as she pushed Rei’s shoulder, “Not as bad as you thought it was? Now that definitely makes me want to have sex with you,” Olivia shook her head and smirked at Rei. She frowned and looked down at Rei, “Have you ever been on a date?”

Olivia grinned, “No, there aren’t any dragons keeping us trapped in there. I can’t imagine there are dragons on school grounds. There are dragons though, just not here. The Ministry tries to keep them under control.” The idea of dragons being on campus was both exciting and terrifying. “There are other magical creatures though, there’s a whole class about it. It’s an elective though so we can’t take it until third year.” Olivia nodded, glad that Rei seemed to be interested in what she was saying. She smiled back at Rei, it was the first time the girl had smiled at her since she sat down, “Superman is brilliant, I’m a bit fonder of Supergirl myself.” Olivia blushed slightly and continued talking, “No, not as exciting as Superman. Yeah, really. And if you’re good at flying there’s Quidditch too. It’s a sport like um…well there’s not really a muggle equivalent.”

Olivia laughed and shook her head, still not quite able to believe that she’d run into Cassidy in Hyde Park. It made sense for her to be here, she lived her but last she’d heard Cass was off doing all sorts of exciting things that Olivia couldn’t even imagine. She should have expected the hug but it had been so long since Olivia had been around someone who openly showed enthusiasm the way Cassidy did and Olivia hadn’t realized how much she’d missed that until now. She wrapped her arms tightly around Cassidy and buried her face against her friend’s shoulder. Olivia laughed as Cassidy squeezed her more tightly, it all felt so familiar. “I’m glad to see you too. What are you doing here? Last I heard you were off somewhere doing much cooler things than me.” Olivia squeezed Cassidy’s hands to remind herself that they were really here and this was actually happening. “I’ve been alright, busy, very busy with school and work and everything else. But what about you? I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve talked. I’ve missed you a lot.”

Olivia smiled back softly, “Thank you for wanting to know. It feels sort of weird telling you about it, it’s been a really long time since I’ve been able to share things with you.” Olivia went back to tracing her fingers over Rei’s skin, “I like it though, being able to talk to you. I hope you’ll get to the point where you can talk to me too. Don’t worry if it takes a while though, I know how hard that is for you. I can wait.” Olivia smiled up at Rei, it felt really nice to sit with her like this. Even when they’d been friends before there were still so many walls, so much that Rei wasn’t telling her or that Olivia didn’t feel like Rei would want to know about her. They weren’t back to where they’d been, they’d already managed to move past that. Olivia laughed, “Oh just because it’s helpful? Are you sure there’s no other reason you might want to sleep with me again?” Olivia shifted up onto her knees before moving to straddle Rei’s lap, “Are you sure it’s not because you think you’ll get a shag out of it? Because I sort of think you might be thinking that. Though I cannot imagine what would give you that idea,” Olivia leaned down and pressed her lips to Rei’s neck. Olivia leaned back and smirked down at Rei, “You do realize that I’m going to expect you to stay now right? If we have sex I will want you to cuddle with me after.”

Olivia nodded as Rei spoke, Olivia was always paying attention. She was grateful for the smile, at least Rei didn’t seem to be upset with her for being so nosy but as Rei continued Olivia frowned, running Rei’s words around in her head, “Oh, Oh!” Her eyes got wide as she realized what Rei was saying. “Why didn’t you say something? You know we could have done just about anything else right? Obviously I don’t know what it’s like for you but I do know something about being in situations that bring up painful parts of your past.” Olivia squeezed Rei’s hand, “At the very least having someone who knows what’s going helps me.” Olivia smiled up at Rei, hoping to let her know that she wasn’t bothered by what Rei had told her. It made her sad that things had been that way for Rei but that was different. Olivia laughed, she could tell Rei was confused by her reaction to the kiss. She kept her hands on Rei’s waist and played with the fabric of her shirt, “Sorry, I realize that was a little weird. It’s after midnight, it’s my birthday.” Olivia smiled up at Rei, “I had my first kiss at midnight on my birthday and Cass thought that was the best thing so every year since someone kisses me, usually it’s Cass and on my cheek but not always. That’s why they made me come to the party tonight.” Olivia shrugged, “I know it’s ridiculous but it’s what we do. I promise that’s not why I invited you tonight, I didn’t know that you might want to kiss me. I mean, I knew I wanted to kiss you, of course I wanted to kiss you.” Olivia had started rambling again, “I probably should have just told you but I forgot to and now you probably think I’m weirder than you already did. Which is fair because I am really weird.”

Olivia smiled, her smiles seemed to be coming easier as the conversation went on, “Did you see those big towers on the castle when we were on the lake? Well we are going to be living in one of them, I can’t remember which one though.” Olivia was really excited about living in a tower, the idea of being able to see so much from her bedroom window sounded wonderful. All she could see from her bedroom at home were fields and trees now she’d be able to see so much more. “Plus we’re going to have flying lessons.” Olivia realized she should probably elaborate, “Not like, flying like superman. On brooms, like all the stories. At least they got something right huh?” Olivia had been on a broom before, her mom still had one from when she was growing up. Olivia hadn’t been very good at flying, she was too clumsy and too afraid of falling off. For someone who climbed around on trees and buildings she couldn’t feel secure on a thin piece of wood. To be fair her mother’s broom was pretty old and not nearly as stable as some of the new models.

Olivia laughed, "What do you mean? I had every intention of drinking lemonade with you and then we can go sit on my bed and pretend we're not dying to make-out. Is that not what you were expecting?" Olivia sighed agains Rei's lips, the kiss felt sweet and soft and comfortable. There was no push behind it for more, it was a kiss for the sole purpose of being a kiss and it felt incredible. Olivia put her hands on Rei's sides and lifted herself onto her toes as she gently moved her lips against Rei's. Dropping back onto her heels Olivia leaned away from the kiss and smiled up at Rei before glancing at the clock, 12:01. She grinned, "Thank you."

Olivia raised an eyebrow at Rei, “You don’t remember your other party experiences? That doesn’t really sound like a good thing.” Olivia had never been blackout drunk before, she’d never even been drunk enough to get sick. She could never manage to let herself get to a point where she couldn’t take care of herself, Olivia had always figured that that stemmed from the fact that she’d spent so much of her childhood being the only person concerned about her. Olivia didn’t know how to let people take care of her. Olivia looked up and smiled at Rei before pouring them both a glass of lemonade. She handed one to Rei and took a sip, moving back to lean against the counter. They were back in the same position they’d been in just before they’d left for the party. Olivia looked at Rei over the edge of her glass and smiled before setting it down on the counter beside her. “It’s been a long time since I brought a pretty girl back to my apartment. I can assure you my roommates think we’re doing a lot more than drinking lemonade in the kitchen.” Olivia laughed and tapped Rei’s foot with her own. She moved to pick her glass back up and glanced at the time displayed on the microwave which read 11:59. She smiled widely and stepped up to stand in front of Rei and asked, “Will you kiss me please?”

Olivia twisted around to face Rei and crossed her legs, she smiled and gently ran hers fingers down Rei’s arm, “It’s not exactly something I need to talk about because there’s nothing that can be done about it but…” Olivia took a deep breath and continued, “It is important. I have no idea if you even noticed how much changed between fourth and fifth year but in case you did, this is why.” Olivia played with the T-shirt Rei was wearing, “This isn’t something I tell people about because, well no one knows how to react to this sort of thing.” Olivia stared at Rei’s shirt rather than looking her in the eye, “I was in a car accident the summer after fourth year and um…my friend, my only friend before Hogwarts, she um…she died and well…every night I have nightmares about it.” Olivia laughed without any humor in it, “Until London of course, now sometimes I have nightmares about that instead.” Olivia looked up at Rei, “But I didn’t have any nightmares last night and that was thanks to you because you made me feel safe.” Olivia leaned forward and pressed her lips to Rei’s just for a moment before leaning back and smiling, “That was a lot heavier than I was expecting this morning.”

“Oh…” Olivia smiled and looked down at her plate. She was so used to being different, she was the weird kid who stammered and spent all of her time reading and drawing. She wouldn’t have realized that Rei was talking about herself if she hadn’t said something, even though she knew it still didn’t quite make sense to her. “I don’t have to like you to be nice to you,” Olivia smiled looked back up at Rei, “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like you.” Olivia pulled her hair up into a bun and stuck the pencil she’d used to draw the house-elf into her hair where she usually kept it. “No, not exactly. But if there is a Father Christmas maybe he has house-elves too.” Olivia glanced back down the table and considered grabbing another piece of bread, “So…you’re not afraid of heights are you?”