Alex could literally feel her mouth drop open at his question. Whatever she had been expecting..it wasn't this. Um. She closed her mouth and continued staring at him. So..how was she supposed to reply? "Well..no. Not really. In fact, I haven't been in a relationship since..forever." She'd liked this guy a couple of years back but yeah..it never really worked out and since then..she'd been too busy to give any attention to her love life. She cleared her throat and continued, "But..there might be someone that I like." She could feel a smile tugging the corners of her lips. If he was smart, he would know that it was him that she liked but yeah..there was no harm in making him guess a little.

Alex stood nearby as she waited for him to throw the final ring. She was still wondering as to how this situation came out. She had absolutely no idea that he actually liked her..well, liked in a 'more than just friends' way.

A surprised look crossed her face when she noticed that his ring had actually landed on the bottle. WOW. She laughed when she saw his face. Ah. He seemed to be more shocked that she was. "Hey, you did it!" She gave him a quick hug. "You're great!" She frowned for a minute, thinking about the hug..but bleh. There was no use thinking about it..if he didn't like it, he would just tell her, right? "So, what do you think the prize will be?" She hoped it wasn't a teddy bear. Ugh.

Oh they were so bad.

Mia watched as he scoffed his food down before he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her away from the carnival. Merlin! She hoped that he didn't get indigestion or anything. She would have to think about that later though. There was something more important on her mind at the moment.

"Well maybe that's because I wasn't with you." She had to admit that this was the best trip to Diagon Alley that she'd ever had. Well it will be in about twenty minutes.

Hehe.

"Where are we going exactly?"

At the instant that Alex's mouth fell open Damon realized he had made a bad decision. A very bad decision. He should have just kept his mouth shut and not said a word. Way to go to him...the moment killer. Adam had shoved his hands into his pockets, uncertain what to do with himself since what he really wanted to do was just walk away and leave Alex alone. Surely she didn't need someone in her life that was this mental. However just as Damon was about to excuse himself to go crawl into a corner and die Alex actually started to answer the question. But there might be someone that she liked? Damon turned to look at Alex who had a little smile on her face. Was she admitting that she liked him too?

"Well...that's good, because there's someone that I may like too, and uh...she's standing pretty close by," Damon said with a little smile, hoping that it was obvious to Alex that he meant her.

Inside of course Damon was holding reservations about having just said that, because there was always the possibility that Damon had completely misread her. After all, he wasn't exactly the best at relationships or reading people. But when Alex reached up and hugged him without any hesitations Damon could help but feel like he was at least somewhat right. Damon wrapped his arms around Alex's waist and gave her a little squeeze.

What did he win? " I actually have no idea," Damon said with a little laugh. "Hopefully something exciting."

Alex smiled when she noticed how surprised Damon was when she admitted that she did like him. "Um. I've..you know.." She could feel her cheeks slowly turning red but she continued, "liked you for a while..but I wasn't sure whether you liked me or not..so I just ignored..the feeling." She felt so stupid for saying that aloud..but she said it. She sighed and turned a little so that she didn't face him anymore.

"Oh, really? Who would that lucky lady be?" Alex couldn't help but grin. She hadn't been this happy in a very long time.

Ah. Turned out that he actually didn't mind her giving him a hug but she was surprised when he wrapped his arms around her. She leaned back a little and looked at him. "Damon..I'm not really good at all this relationship stuff..you know, it's been ages since I've liked a guy and..anyway, the point is..do you want this? I mean, we--?" Uggh. She couldn't say anything right. She just hoped that he understood her.

"Yeah. Definitely something exciting." Alex laughed. "I hope it's not a barbie doll or something.."

Shannon couldn't help but keep smiling, Amy seemed a bit hyper and slightly over bearing, but she seemed to come off as a genuine person not trying to be someone else just for show. He chuckled at her comment on how big New York was. He had a feeling she was just talking about New York City, a place that Shannon had been quite a few times but lived no where near.

"I'm from Malone, in upstate New York." He explained, to her. "What did you like most about New York?" He asked her, he was kind of curious to hear what she liked about New York, people seemed to have several different opinions on the place.

He gave another laugh and nodded his head. "I'll make sure to do some exploring before school starts." He agreed, it could be fun.

Oh Amy nodded, a little bit disspointed that he wasn't from like the "upper east side" and slept in an apartment over Central Park, but she didn't even know where Malone was. Was that bad? Ah. Well that could be a little awkward. Uhuh. So she wouldn't let him know...hopefully.

She ran a hand through her thick hair, getting stuck slightly and pulling her hand out as she thought, I think it was the sheer difference of the place, she said after a few seconds thought, then realised that didn't make sense, well, I mean like, its such a busy place and you find yourself being pushed and everything, but then you go to somewhere like Central Park and its so calm and serene.....and I like the zoo she added as an afterthought. Plus, Times Square is huge, but its so different from Harlem, and I just love the fact that you could walk from one end to the other all on one street. She nodded, thinking back to that holiday slightly dreamily, there's no where else quite like New York she said with a dreamy smile, before snapping back, but its terrifying to be in, it's so loud..and busy Amy nodded seriously.

Oh definatley Amy nodded, go to the royal parks, they're really pretty

Wow...Damon was definitely out of practice with the whole dating thing. Alex had liked him for a while and he hadn't even noticed it until recently. Way to go Damon....NOT. "I've...uh...liked you for a while too," Damon said, feeling himself get slightly nervous just because Alex seemed to be nervous too. It didn't seem to matter how many times you opened up to someone or how many times you had someone tell you they liked you too, it never really changed the feeling. It never was less nerve racking and it was never less embarrassing. After all, Damon felt like he was back in his teen years, struggling to tell his first crush that he liked her.

Damon held Alex in his arms for a moment, releasing her slightly as she leaned back to speak to him. Damon gave her a warm smile. "Trust me, it's been a while since I've done this either, so we can just both awkwardly stumble through it together. How does that sound?" Damon asked, giving her a hopeful little smile. He felt like him and Alex were really compatible for each other...they both seemed to have similar morals and they seemed to have a good understanding of each other. He hoped that Alex would be willing to give it a go with him...

Damon turned to look at the carnival stand, not sure if anyone would even know to give them a prize. "I'm not even sure who to tell that I got it around the bottle," Damon said with a little laugh.

Yes, they were very bad.

Nikolai grinned over at Mia, and backtracking a few steps, he pulled the pumpkin pastie that he had in his pocket and threw that in the garbage as well. There really was no point in playing that game anymore, not when they had more exciting things to do. Taking her hand in his once more, he tugged her a little faster towards the exit.

"That's true. And now I know not to go anywhere without you." Hehe. Although, no matter how much he wished they could, he doubted she would be allowed to go everywhere with him.

Once they reached the exit, Nikolai stopped to stare at Mia with a look of confusion on his face. She didn't know where they were going? "To Sugarplum's, of course!"

And with that, he pulled her in the direction of the shop.

Dani slowly moved around the stalls, checking out pretty much everything and definately spending her Mother's money on whatever nice caught her eye. Which was a lot of stuff.

She walked along and looked around, also people watching too. She wondered if she'd see anyone she knew, or didn't know. That was always fun. Meeting someone completely new.

Alex didn't know what to say. Uh. She was feeling nervous because..yeah, so this may sound a little weird but the fact that a guy like Damon actually liked her was..flattering. She had assumed that the crush she had on him would just fade away..but turned out that he liked her as well. Also, the fact that they admitted liking each other was..weird but strangely nice. She gave him a smile when he said that he liked her for a while as well. "Wow. This is.." She searched for a few words that could describe what she felt but all she came up with was, "amazing."

"That actually sounds good." Alex felt relieved that he didn't have a clue about any of this either. At least, she didn't feel awkward about the whole thing anymore. Um. So, this was going to be a little embarrassing. "Uh. You know, I've never really.." Oh gosh. She felt stupid. Really stupid. "you know, been in a relationship before." Alex muttered. Gosh, she couldn't believe that she actually said that aloud. How embarrassing.

Alex laughed. "Do you want to wait for the prize or do you want to check out other games?"

Damon gave her a smile as Alex seemed to struggle to find the right words. He could tell that she was getting shy, which was causing her to speak a lot softer. Damon leaned down a bit so it would be easier to hear over all the bustle around them. Once she was finished Damon leaned back up, surprise on his face. "Never? Someone as nice, pretty, and smart as you? Well...that doesn't make any sense." Damon didn't really understand how people could be so oblivious to someone as good as Alex.

Damon placed his hands on either side of her shoulders so that she'd look at him. "That doesn't bother me," Damon said with a little grin. "Every relationship is different and unique to the people involved in it, so we're free to take the whole thing at whatever pace we want to." Damon was just a teen during his first real relationship, but it had last three years, and the break-up was...well...it had not been pretty. His fault for dating a muggle that was closed minded, but that was done with so no need to bring up old memories.

Damon turned to look at the game. "Maybe we should just move on. The carnie didn't see me do it so they might think I cheated or something anyway," Damon said with a little laugh. "What game would you like to play next?" he asked, taking a step so that he was next to Alex before reaching down and taking hold of her hand. He hoped she didn't mind....

Doing an undercover job wasn't so bad. It was finally a reason that Aedan could get out of the sufficating office. And the carnival had seemed alot of fun from what he had heard from his little brother. But he wasn't here to have some fun , although his boss had instructed him to "blend in" he was here for bussiness.

As he walked through the streets of the carnival, Aedan had found his little brother , Daichi, at the petting zoo and couldn't help but laugh at his innocence. He wanted to talk to him but knew he had a job to do and more importantly , he didn't want him to be in danger.

There had been a conference at the Ministry about dark artifacts being sold at this carnival. Yes THIS carnival. Aedan didn't believe it at first. Why would anyone sell dark artifacts where children were? But then again, it did seem like the perfect cover. Children were easy to manipulate and were more focused on their winning prizes than anything dark.

He kept his boss's money firmly in his pocket as he looked around. So far nothing interesting had happened. Not that he wanted it of course, he would rather get an object and bring it to the Ministry as soon as possible. As he walked through the crowd , Aedan stopped a few times to listen in on what others were talking about. He sometimes did as if he was looking for someone or that he was tying his shoes while listening. But no luck.

He sighed and wondered how Blake was doing. He really hoped he wouldn't be stupid and walk up to him. He had the feeling that the employee was thrilled to do an undercover job.... Aedan decided to check out the Stalls and Vendors. What is a better place to hide or sell dark objects than in here right?

The fact that he was instructed to blend in and not interrogate anyone got him slightly annoyed though. He wanted action. A chase through the carnival or something. He sighed again as he eyed the trinkets in a stall. The glow in the dark holsters particulary got his attention... Hadn't his boss told him about that? Maybe he should just buy a few of the trinkets and then take them back to the ministry for inspection? Mweh it was worth the shot. He looked around for the owner. "Excuse me!? Can i buy something?!"

Alex laughed at his surprise. "Yeah, never. Pathetic, right?" It was crazy. She liked this guy in school. She thought he liked her too but turned out that he liked someone else..and that someone else was a girl she had known. After that drama, she went through a really depressing phase. Ugh. It even hurt to think about it. So anyway..she'd avoided relationships/dating since then. What was the point in just getting hurt? But..she liked Damon. She admired and respected him. She looked at him with a grin. "Nice, pretty and smart? You don't have to be so polite, you know." She might be smart but she wasn't pretty. Not at all.

Alex was delighted. "Okay, then." She gave him another hug. She looked at him and asked, "Are you sure?" She felt absolutely sure. She wanted to give it a try and she wanted to know if he felt the same way. She was getting into something that was scaring her a lot but it was also exciting in a way.

Alex grinned. "Yeah, but it's sad though. I would have liked to see your prize." Um. What game? "Well, I decided hoopla so you can choose whatever you want." She smiled when he held her hand and she slowly intertwined her fingers with his.

"No...not pathetic, just baffling," Damon said with a little laugh. He gave her a smile as repeated the compliments that he had given her. "I merely speak the truth," Damon said. In all honesty the girls Damon had dated before had been...well...trouble. They gave from similar environments as him and they hadn't handled the whole abandonment thing very well. As Damon started to mature and move on from it all, they didn't, and ultimately it was what caused the ugly end to the relationship.

Damon wrapped his arms around Alex as she gave him another hug, holding her tightly too his body, but not too tight that it would hurt her or anything. "I have never been so sure about anything in my life," Damon said with a completely straight and serious face. He didn't want Alex having any doubts about his emotions or the things he was saying. This was what he wanted and he hoped that she wanted it as well.

"I would have liked to see my prize too," Damon said with a little frown. As Alex intertwined her fingers with his he smiled, glad that she didn't mind the gesture. Hmm...what game should they play next? "How about the game where there are the three bottles stacked on top of one another, and you have to try and knock them down by throwing a ball at them?" Damon asked as he started to lead them down the row of stalls. Whatever that game was called...honestly, he had no idea.

"Well, thanks." Alex smiled. "I'm honoured. You're not too bad yourself. Nice, smart and handsome." She said, with a wink. She couldn't believe that she actually told him that she'd never been in a proper relationship. It was a little pathetic and embarrassing. Honestly. At nearly 22, people were getting married and here she was, starting to get into her first..relationship? She shook her head and smiled. Ah, anyway. It was worth the wait, right?

Alex couldn't help but blush when he wrapped his arms around her. Hoping that it wasn't too out of line or something..she leaned and gave him a peck on the cheek. Ugh. Was it too early for that or...? Gosh. Lily was right! She was totally clueless when it came to anything romantic. "Well..you should know that you've just made me really happy."

"Oh. I think that one is a little easy.." At least, she hoped that it would be easy but she had no idea what it was called..hmm. She walked down the street and looked for that game. Maybe..this time she would won something?

Damon with a lopsided grin at the compliment. "Why thank you," he said with a little laugh. Damon had a good feeling about the whole thing, and usually his gut reaction never let him down. Damon was enjoying the feel of holding Alex in his arms when she surprised him. Did she just kiss him on the cheek? Damon pulled back slightly to look at Alex, giving her a little smile as he did so, before he leaned down and gently planted a kiss right on her lips. Perhaps he was being a bit more bold than he should have, but he felt like it was the right and okay thing to do. A part of him wondered if this was Alex's first relationship, did that mean he had been her first kiss? Woah.

"You should know that you've just made me really happy," Damon said with a little laugh. He continued to lead them down the stalls, their interlocked hands swinging slightly with the motion of them walking. "Wait...that kind of looks like the game doesn't it?" Damon asked, using his free hand to point at one of the stalls.

Oh gosh. Oh gosh. Oh gosh. What just happened!? Alex started hyperventilating. Did he just kiss her? Oh gosh. Oh gosh. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Calm down, Alex. You NEED to calm down. Affer a couple of minutes, she opened her eyes to see Damon looking at her. "Damon.." Alex whispered. Oh gosh. It was magical. She could literally feel some sort of fluttering sensation in her stomach. She wrapped her arms around his neck and said, "I've.." How on earth could she tell him the he was her first kiss? If he hadn't already figured it out, that is. "Um. You should know that..um.." Alex almost felt like running away. She could feel her cheeks going red. "You're my first kiss and it was simply amazing." Alex said simply. At 22! How unbelievable! She feelt so dumb. Honestly, he was just going to laugh at her. She bit her lip and looked away.

Alex smiled at his response. It was a great feeling..to be holding hands with a guy she liked. She looked at the stall. Awesome. He found it. "Yeah, looks like it. C'mon!" She started walking a little faster, pulling him along.

Damon looked down at Alex as she tried to start talking. Damon didn't rush her though, even though he felt like he knew what she was going to say. Once she got it out Damon gave a light hearted laugh. "Well I'm glad you enjoyed it, because I enjoyed it too," he said with a big smile. "And it's good to know I haven't lost it," he said with a little chuckle. It had after all been an incredibly long time since he had kissed anyone, and he wasn't sure whether or not that was a skill that you could lose if you went a long time without doing it. Apparently not though.

Damon was squinting his eyes to try and read the sign above the stall when Alex gave his arm a tug, pulling him along behind her. He let out a laugh, giving her a little twirl, before pulling her close to his side. "Alright, I have a good feeling that this game is going to be your game," Damon said with a positive smile. Buying three balls from the carnie, he handed one to Alex. It didn't make much sense to give her all three if she was going to be the one throwing. "Go on and give it a go," he said with an encouraging smile.

Alex gave a quiet sigh of relief. So, he didn't seem too freaked out. "Yeah. Of course, I enjoyed it." 'I enjoyed it' was an understatement. She had more than just enjoyed it. Oh gosh, she'd had her first kiss! She felt like she just wanted to scream that aloud but that would be a little..silly. This should have happened when she was a teen, not an adult..but bleh. She was super happy and excited. That's what mattered at the end of the day, right? She grinned at his next statement. "Lost it?" Without thinking, the girl leaned forward and gave him a kiss on his lips. Ah. What was wrong with her!? "Um..that's..sorry." Gosh, she actually struggled to form a sentence. She must be totally lovestruck.

Alex laughed as he gave her a twirl. She slid her arm around his waist, hoping he was okay with it and walked towards the stall. Her game? "Well, I hope I manage to hit the bottles.." She said, nervously. She took the ball that Damon handed out to her and stood in position. She eased her arm back, before carefully throwing the ball towards the bottles. Oh. All of the bottles toppled down. She'd done it. She grinned before turning towards Damon. "Can you believe it? I did it!"

Damon smiled at Alex, pleased that she had been okay with the gesture. He was about to say something about having not kissed anyone since he was seventeen when Alex leaned forward and planted another kiss right on his lips. Damon let out a little laugh. "Don't ever apologize for that," Damon said with another smile. Now if she ever punched him or something that sort, well then an apology might be in order.

Damon gave Alex's shoulder a little squeeze as she wrapped her arm around his waist before letting go so that she'd had room to throw. Damon watched, holding his breath without even realizing it. "WOOOHOOO" Damon yelled, perhaps a bit too loudly as all the bottles toppled over. [b]"Look at you!! Getting them all on the first throw! Damon took Alex into his arms swinging her around for a moment before setting her back down again. "We are definitely going to wait so that you get your prize."

Alex smiled. "Yeah, well..this whole..as you know, relationship stuff is kinda new for me." She'd never really flirted with guys either..she wasn't exactly the 'shy' kind of girl but she used to feel nervous. Ah. She was self-conscious. Plain and simple. So anyway.. "I'm a little curious. What did the 'lost it' mean? I hope you don't mind me asking.." She said, feeling her cheeks heat up a little.

Alex laughed when Damon yelled and started swinging her around. "Yeah. Am I brilliant or what?" She felt so excited. She'd never really won games or anything before..but she actually got it right the first time. WOOT. "Prize?" She grimaced. "I'm not really excited about it.."

Damon gave Alex a little smile. What did he mean by lost it? "Well...I haven't dated anyone since I was seventeen/eighteen years old, and the girls I had dated told me I was a good kisser, but obviously it's been a few years since I was that young and spunky," Damon said with a little chuckle. Um...how did he want to go about wording the rest of this? "Well...uh...kissing is kind of like anything. The more you do it the better you get at it. Since I haven't kissed anyone in years I wasn't sure if I'd be...um...well...rusty," Damon said, adverting his eyes from Alex for a moment. He had never really talked about this with anyone, so Damon was a little self conscious himself. After all, he didn't want Alex thinking he'd been around with a bunch of girls, because he hadn't, but he did have more experience than her since he was her first boyfriend.

Damon shot Alex a stern look. "You should be excited about your prize, not dreading it," Damon said with a little chuckle. "It's a sign of your accomplishment, and trust me, what you just did is not easy to do."

Vashti wasn't sure why she was wandering among the stalls and vendors area. It wasn't like she was going to buy anything. The only thing worth buying at a carnival was the food, and she wasn't going back over to that area just yet. So why was she walking around here when the people who were selling things were staring and eyeing her like she was a horrible person for ignoring them and refusing to buy a bunch of junk?

Yeah, she really didn't have an answer to that. She was just wandering around, plain and simple.

She mostly avoided looking at the carnies but caught the eyes of a girl standing by one of the stalls who appeared to be around her age and who appeared to be more than willing to buy a bunch of the carnival stuff. Vashti gave her a friendly smile in passing but tried to keep moving so that she didn't appear as if she was going to buy something.

Oh. Alex didn't know whether to laugh or to feel embarrassed about the fact she was getting to know about his..dating history. Unfortunately, she went with the latter. She could feel her cheeks growing warm again and she had no idea where to look. Honestly, it was her fault. She shouldn't have brought up the topic in the first place. "Right..um..well, in that case..I must be terrible." She gave a nervous laugh before she bent down her head to look at her sandals. She looked up again to see him turning away from her. Soo..he must be feeling quite embarrassed as well. She sighed and placed one hand on his cheek so that he was forced to look at her. "Hey, relax. I honestly don't care." She did feel a little uncomfortable..mainly because she was so clueless about...everything.

Alex grinned. "I'm sure it's not that great an accomplishment.." Although..she felt really excited..like a little kid. She'd never really won any games until now. "Maybe you're my lucky charm." She gave a smile before turning towards him. "So..you want to give it a try?"

"No, no, not at all!" Damon said with a shake of the head. He felt bad that he had showed a little embarrassment because it seemed to make Alex regret that she had asked him. She didn't know, and Damon didn't mind telling her. After all wasn't that what the more knowledgeable person was supposed to do? Damon gave her another little smile. "I just...uh...well, I'm not exactly proud of some of my last relationships." Wasn't that the truth. He had looked away again, but Alex took a hold of his cheek and turned it towards her. He let out a little laugh before pulling her in for a hug. Perhaps it was a bit of a blessing that Alex didn't know how bad she had it.

"Sure it is!" Damon said with a mocking shake of the head. "Don't sell yourself short." He gave a big lopsided grin at her comment about him being her lucky charm. "Perhaps you are mine as well, since I have never won the previous game we just played." Did he want to give it a go? Hmmm..."We should let this be your game. How about you pick the next one?"