Welcome to Gaia! ::

The text found its way to Caroline as she was hunting for familiar faces in the cafeteria, making sure they were all properly fed and warm enough. She was oblivious to the reality that she was annoying most everyone else more than anything, and completely missed one melodramatic sigh of relief when she stopped to eagerly trail the message out the door.

Biting her lip was the only way to conceal her smile as she made her way down the basement corridor. This had to be something exciting, if he'd asked for her to find him.

Her room was first - and empty - and she delayed any disappointment as she hurried to the room beside hers. In her efforts to fend it off, however, she hadn't thought to cover up all of the hope that now showed on her face.

"Oh good," she sighed, relieved that his room wasn't empty too. "I'd have been such a sore loser, if you'd made the game easy and I was still so bad at it."

The container was neither acknowledged nor questioned; she hadn't even noticed it, in truth. When she focused, she focused, and it wasn't at all what she had her eye on. It might have stood a better chance if it welcomed her by pulling her into its lap. And also if it was Harvard.

"Well, I--" When he was touching her hair and looking at her like that and stopping time just for a kiss from her, it didn't really matter why she was here. Just that she was. Her words got lost somewhere along the way and took any wondering with them. They didn't come back until they were joined by a warning that she was going to find herself distracted for a decidedly lengthy time, if she continued chasing her intentions in kissing him in return.

"Okay...okay," she sighed out, hiding a fluttering laugh in her chest that tried its best to sneak out with her breath. "A little curious. But I think it matters more that you want me to come...and that I will." A slow smile, as she brushed her thumb fondly over the stubble on his jaw. "Right?"

The delighted scrunch of her nose in response to the kiss was probably more becoming of someone a third her age, but Caroline couldn't help it. A soft laugh followed suit, carrying a 'maybe?' of playful indignation as she leaned back to look at him, then in the direction he was pointing.

A problem that was both very real and very much hers immediately presented itself: it was over there, and she was here. She wanted to stay here, but wanted the present to be here too. With the momentary hope that this weapon bond thing gave magic powers that she had not yet discovered, she stared longingly at the bundle and willed it to come over on its own.

When that didn't happen, she begrudgingly resigned herself to moving just enough to retrieve it before returning to the same position, more or less.

"Ooh, it's wiggling!" Now she was undeniably curious. As fond as she was of presents, she couldn't remember ever receiving anything like this, which made it all the more exciting. A tentative flicker of her eyes met his and she smiled, then lifted the edge of the cloth to see what was beneath it.

She might have guessed, were she not so caught up in truly enjoying this as an unexpected gift, what the container housed. But it was much more fun to forget all of that context for the moment, to be only in the present - having done so, she looked genuinely surprised when she saw what was inside. After a quick kiss of gratitude, she pulled the rest of the cloth away to admire it.

"A pet! You really--for me! Oh, thank you. Never seen anything like it. God, and look how it shines! Like diamonds," she purred, reaching (slowly, like he'd said) to pet its head with the side of one finger, as though it were a fragile little bird. The tilt of its head in response to her touch was similar enough to one. "What sort of...I mean, do you know what they call this?"

Despite implications of inattentiveness, she wasn't ashamed to acknowledge that she had not been observant enough during her minipet-tending duties to remember any of the species. What she did know was that they couldn't survive in this environment, and in a thoughtful pause, she considered his words about cages.

"Wait. No, first...so the cage keeps it alive." If she ever believed a cage was harmless, that belief was now tenuous at best. "Does that mean if I want to keep it as mine, that it never gets to be free? Ever again?"

A series of cages. Feeling anything but sad about that was difficult, but she knew it was possible to feel something else there. Somewhere. The option to set it free was permanently gone, and she didn't want to die - didn't want it to die - and this place was the safest.

"I think I can make the right choice, then," Caroline conceded, a small smile meeting the little dragon's restless curiosity. "Should be with someone who understands."

She appreciated that he was the one to open it, knowing that she might not have been bold enough to for a while. The minipet seemed appreciative too, and about as cautious as she would have been; especially when it left the cage rapidly and without warning. Her skin prickled with chills beneath its feet and she laughed, raising her shoulders as its motion tickled the back of her neck. With care to not frighten it, she unfastened the single (largely ineffective) clip in her hair and brushed the addition in its direction. She thought it felt like it was building a nest or eating her hair, and both were kind of charming.

"So it's luck, huh?" Laughter bubbled up into her words as she gently nudged Harvard with her elbow. "Must be a Three. Does it feel like a Three, or is there something better in another language of yours? I do always like when you've got something to teach me."

Having equal input on these sorts of things was still a bit new in this context, and was endlessly refreshing. Caroline was used to people preferring one extremity or the other, either giving or taking, and she had no trouble with either. This was always such a different thing, and she found more and more ways to adjust to that.

"Well, then I think Three fits perfectly," she proclaimed. "And that's what I choose. It's what I want and I won't change my mind."

A contented sigh answered his kiss. Whether it was bothered by her sound or his proximity or both, she could feel the luck dragon seem to tense, tugging at a lock of her hair with its tail curled tight around it.

"I think I like it too." She shifted and tilted her head enough to give Three and Harvard some space - and to accomplish the goal of the real reason she'd moved, which was to catch the edge of his lips with hers, lingering with her head leaned against his. "I think I like my three a lot."

Her breath caught stubbornly in her throat. In truth, she hadn't been expecting that.

"Oh yeah?" There was half a grin showing before she kissed him again, but an entirely pleased one when she broke away from it. "That's a nice one to be fond of...fits well with you, I think. We--oh, uh..."

Maybe she had never really had a pet before, but Caroline was still fairly confident that it wasn't safe to keep the little creature in her hair while trying to encourage this. She reached back to unravel the red curls that were wound around it, and with a light nudge and a shrug of her shoulder, Three was scurrying down her arm. It tickled, and she made a face as she tried not to laugh, first coaxing it into her hand, then back into its cage. She tried to not think for too long about that.

"Okay," she breathed out, flashing a smile. "Now we're all where we're supposed to be, right? And now is 'later' compared to before, so..."