"Yes. Thing. It..." He made a face and tried to think of how to explain it without having Daphne laugh at him. "She's doing this... audition thing and she wants me to pose with brooms and she said something about studs, but I don't even remember it all..."

Oh yes. That would make her not laugh at him. Good job there, good job.

"I'm sure there's a spell to keep dirt out from under your nails." He didn't know what it was, but he could look it up for her. Nod nod.

Daphne did laugh at him, actually. She truly did. Letting out a rather odd wheeze in the end, Miss Hopton tried to reign in the mirth. Her face had gone completely red, for reasons unknown; too much condensed evil perhaps.

"She wants you to pose on brooms?" asked Daphne and had to have herself another laugh. She just had to! Do not judge until you have been in such a situation! Taking another deep breath, Daphne adopted a serious face and tone. "What's this about studs though?"


What? She waved off his last sentence. Dirt underneath her nails wasn't worrying her at the moment. Studs were.

... Sigh.

"She wants me to pose with brooms. For pictures. So she can make posters and-" Augh, the entire horrible mess was coming back now and Raiden just wanted to headbutt the hourglass until he managed to put it at the back of his head again. "It's not funny, Daphne! It's embarrassing."

He did not know what the stud thing meant. At all. He still retained some of the ignorance he'd come to Hogwarts with. He knew what that word meant, but it, in relation to himself, made no sense.

Mumble. Mumble.

"She said it... ugh Daphne I don't even KNOW. She said that we should hire a photographer to take pictures and make me look like a stud and I'm just going to go and hide now because I've just realised how EMBARRASSING it is."

He'd said it OUT LOUD and yes, Merlin, it was finally working in his head and he did NOT find it amusing.

Daphne's pink mouth formed a round little 'o' when Raiden finished ranting. "Oh," she exclaimed simply wide-eyed and completely understanding where he was coming from.

For about half a second before...


LOOOOOOOL!1!!!1111


HAHAHA! Keeping up the lobster like complexion she had adopted (from being evil, apparently), Daphne rubbed at her eyes, trying to get back the tears that were spilling out.

"It is embarassing! I agree. It is!"


LOL!!

...right.

Raiden stared at Daphne, the blush creeping up his neck, into his ears, and across his face as she laughed at him. Then, without a word, he turned on his heel and started toward the staircase.

He was going to go find a bathroom. And drown himself in the sink.

HAHA. HA. HA-*HICCUP*-HA?

Blinking, Daphne sniffed and hiccuped once more, struggling to keep it all down. Raiden Kururugi was ABANDONING her again. Unacceptable.

"Raiiii DEEEN!" she whined, stomping her foot and rushing forward. Jumping in front of him, she placed her two hands on his chest. "Hehe. Look, I'm sorry but it was funny. It was fuuunnyyy," she said, tilting her head trying to catch his eye. "It was fuuunnyyy!"

And because he was being non-reactive to her cute she put her face closer to his. "It was funny. Smile. Smile! You'll get wrinkles being all angst out like that."

TWITCH. TWITCH.

Daphne was standing in front of him, with her hands on his chest. Blocking him from going upstairs. Raiden shuffled slightly sideways, just to find himself... still blocked. She was not going to let him go past. Frooooown.

"It..." It would be funnier if it were meant to be a joke. But Cela hadn't been kidding. So Raiden didn't smile. Instead, he maintained the look of displeasure.

At least when Daphne put her face close to him and held onto him, he didn't feel uncomfortable.

Aaaaaand....failure. Heaving a sigh, Daphne stepped back and away from Raiden Kururugi. "You really are going to get wrinkles," she grumbled. "What's there to worry about anyways? If you don't want to pose with brooms and be a stud, you don't have to do it."

Snort.







Giggle.

TWIIIIIIIIIIIITCH.

"It's Cela though," he said quietly. Which really should've been all the explanation needed. He was Raiden and for all intents and purposes, Celandine Toussaint owned his WILL. It was... actually really sad when he thought of it, but... he couldn't tell her no. "She kinda got me to agree to it already. Somehow. She... you know her."

She'd backed him into it by... saying something over the top to do instead. Posters were a lesser evil than brochures and radio ads.

Of course, it was Celandine Toussaint. That really covered it, didn't it? As most situations did in her life. "Yes, I do know her," she admitted, the funny being sucked right out of her plump body. "And I do know you so I guess this is a hopeless case. Good luck, though!"

Stud.

...Good luck?

GOOD LUCK?!

Raiden stared at Daphne for a moment before he sighed, his hand going to the back of his neck to rub the heat out of it. He was going to explode into a big old Raiden fireball at this rate, if this term kept on like this.

"Thaaaaanks," he said flatly. "I think I might go drown myself in the sink for real now. She said she'd make YOU help her, you know." A slight hint of desperation was evident in his face. "Please, please help her do this so she doesn't... go over the top and end up driving me mad."

"You can't possibly drown yourself in the sink, silly," said Daphne with a worried frown. Raiden was losing it so soon into the term. "You're way bigger!" Shaking her head, Daphne let her swishing blond hair do the talking for her. At least for the time being. "Don't ask me to! I don't want to! It's...It's..."

So not her business. "I don't want to help! It's just not my style," she grumbled, crossing her arms. "Plus I have things to do, you know. Things."

I'm fairly sure I could," he said flatly. "I don't have to put my whole body in the sink. Just my nose and mouth, silly. You don't drown with your whole body."

Completely possible.

WHYYYYYY DAPHNE. Why do you decline to help us in our time of need. Raiden bit the corner of his bottom lip and twitched a bit more.

"'s not exactly my type of thing either, Daphne. But if YOU help her then it will feel less awkward."

I think.

"Please?" STOP SHAKING YOUR HEAD WOMAN.

"You're not drowning," said Daphne finishing that conversation. End. Finito. Raiden Kururugi was just not going anywhere near any water and/or bodies of water, thanks.

"HOW is it going to be less awkward because I'm in it?" she asked, confused and angry for who knew what reason. WHY did everything have to be sooo much more easy going because she was involved in it? "She's still going to make you pose with brooms!"

UGH. UGH UGH x 100!

"You're cheating," she whined, stomping her foot. He wasn't allowed to say please! "I have to help now. Ohhh. I don't like being a good person anymooore!"

Mini!Tantrum.

"It just would be?" At least she'd be suffering along with him then? Raiden shrugged. And now she was having a tantrum and... had he won?

He had, hadn't he.

"You can make sure she doesn't send anyone really... crazy or anything my way." He felt the red creeping up his neck again. "I told you, it's like... auditions. You can balance her out a bit. You know Cela."

He had WON. He heard her say it. She had to help now. Raiden wanted to HUG her but she'd probably hit him or something, what with her little tantrum thing going on.

She wanted Raiden to take it back! She didn't want to have to watch girls go all crazy over Raiden! It was embarrassing! It was soooo uncomfortable! "You don't need to pose with stupid brooms!" she whined, stomping the floor. "Or hold auditions, you're already a stud."


Blink.

"I don't particularly want to, Daphne," Raiden replied, whining just as much as she was. "But it was a better option than pamphlets and radio spots and anything past that."

Because Cela had seemed set on having these auditions happen one way or the other, and... he was HIM. The person who could not say no, because Cela would pout and wibble and then he'd just say yes ANYWAY.

STARE.

"Daphne it's nooooooot funny!" WHINE. He was 15, almost 16, and yet he was going to whine like a small child because the whole stud thing was just nooooot funny at all. HE WAS NOT A STUD.

HE WAS RAIDEN.

Radio spots?! Momentarily, Daphne wondered just what kind of witches would respond to a radio spot. That was too dangerous. She'd have to tell Celandine she didn't like that idea much, or at all, really.

"Okay...." she said, pursing her lips. It was either that or grin---okay, she grinned. "Stud. It's not funny. Whatever you say."

Ha.

Daphne was grinning again. And she... just... augh. Raiden twitched, torn between relief that she'd help and wanting to go drown himself in the sink again over the whole 'stud' thing.

"It's not," he insisted, his face covered in splotches of raw embarrassment. "And I'm not. I AM NOT. Okay?"

Maybe he could be relieved and drown himself in the sink.

Sigh. Sigh and GROAN. Just wait, Daphne Hopton. Wait until something crazy happened to YOU.

Raiden was tall. When had he gotten so tall? Looking up at him, Daphne let out a deep breath. "You can be such a grumpy pants with me and with everyone else you can't even say what you really want. Honestly, Raiden, is it that hard or I have just given you way too much confidence?"

HMMMMM! "And you are a bit of a stud," she said seriously this time. "You look completely different from the last time I looked at you."

Looked looked.

"I don't know," he mumbled, frowning at Daphne. It was weird. He could say whatever he liked to her, but... when it came to Cela, and now Neptune, his brain just completely shut off all references to that word. Probably because he'd seen Daphne's 'displeased' face enough that he'd been desensitised to it? Maybe?

The last comment, spoken with actual sincerity rather than giggles, would have prompted even more blushing, if he weren't full up on that already. Instead, he averted his eyes to the floor. What did he even say to that. He was kinda what?

"Whaaaaat. I'm taller, maybe, but I still look the same."

...didn't he?

Daphne didn't know either. He was also the only boy (because Garret didn't think count, he was an alien life-form) who didn't try to keep her pleased either. Again, she looked at Raiden and ended up averting her eyes too while she rubbed one cherry colored cheek.

"No, you don't," she insisted to her shoe and pointed at it. "Just like I'm not the same shoe size as I used to be. People change, you know, without realizing it."

...well... she was right, of course. Raiden had noticed that people looked vastly different from how they'd looked when he'd first arrived here, but... well he'd never applied the concept to himself. Probably because any time he looked in the mirror, he looked the same as last time. So yeah... he... ugh. Without realising it.

One hand tugged on the hem of his untucked shirt uncomfortably as he looked at her foot. She was right; her feet were bigger. Which... hehe he wanted to say that, but she'd probably get mad or something. And then smack him.

...eh.

"You're right. Your feet did get bigger."

And he GRINNED.

Launching a sideways glare in Raiden's direction, Daphne found it that she did not like that statement one bit; reason unknown too. "What's that supposed to mean? You're being a poo, I should tell you. You're being a poo."

Turning her green-brown gaze to her shoes instead, Daphne wiggled her toes inside her shoes. "I have dainty feet. Dainty."

Truth. Recognize it Raiden Kururugi.

"Whaaaaaat, I am not!" he protested, pointing at her foot. "I agreed with you. You said they got bigger and I said 'yes, they did'."

Hehehehe.

Didn't mean they weren't still dainty. They were bigger than they'd been before though. He was only poking fun! Not a poo, not a poo.

...okay maybe a little bit.

"Least they're small than mine," he tried, looking at his feet. His toes curled up inside his sneakers, wiggling a bit as he stared at them. "Mine are bigger than yours."

Yes. He said it almost proudly.