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Carpet vacuumed? Check.
Bed made up? Check.
Desk completely overhauled to become a craft station? Double check!

Alba had spent all morning getting things together and cleaning up as much of the dorm as she felt was necessary. The vacuum had been dragged through every nook and cranny that hid notorious dust bunnies, every surface had been wiped with a damp cloth harboring the sweet smell of lemon and pinesol, and finally, had gone shopping at the nearby Crafty Miss. She nearly toppled over the entrance trying to squeeze all the boxes in, but in the end, managed to get everything sorted and arranged in a neat and orderly fashion.

she was relieved that her roommate Bell had left earlier for theatre rehearsals, otherwise she would have felt terrible making all that hubbub while she was around.

Color-coordinated boxes stored an array of crafting material: threads, paper of every thickness and tints, a surplus of jagged-edged scissors and a rainbow battalion of beads were among the contained culprits. Dragging over the coffee table and throwing pillows on the floor resolved her surface-space issue, and after placing two mugs of hot cocoa on her hand-made coasters, she eagerly waited for her special guest.

This would be her first Valentines Day celebrating with people that were not in any way, shape or form related to her (or complete strangers, as she later thought back). She was going to do this the right way!



Imogen's life sucked.

Was it because she had yet to hear back from any of the jobs she'd applied to? No.
Was it because she'd encountered far too many youma that wanted to kill her ? Nope.
Was it because she was single on valentine's Day and didn't have ANY romantic prospects on this, the very day of romance? Bingo!

She couldn't help it. At heart, Imo thrived on romance, she always had ever since she was a little girl wishing she could be a princess and find her prince. Now she was older, less into pink and wanted a princess rather than a prince. However the romance of the thing was still a vital part of her. And this year...this year there was nothing on her horizon at all! There had been no romance at all because most of it she couldn't even really remember since bloody Barren Pines and...all she'd had was ridiculous crush on Gemini, who had not kissed her and probably thought she was an idiot. So this had been a year without love by Imo's reckoning.

She usually loved Valentine's Day too and had eagerly agreed to meet up with Alba to make valentines to give out. But now she was outside Alba's room and knocking on the door, she was biting her lip and feeling less enthused. She didn't feel crafty, she felt down. Urgh everything sucked! She should have just let that last youma kill her to spare her this misery of being single on Valentine's Day. It would have been a mercy and it wouldn't have involved fiddling around with crinkle sisscors and glitterglue.



Alba had been checking through her list to make sure that she had everything she needed to make the Most Perfect Valentines Ever when she heard the dull knock on the door. Her body tensed in the second that she was caught off-guard, but immediately regained her composure by crossing off the last two items on her list (which she then stuffed into her pocket) and rushed towards the door.

She was still in a delighted daze knowing her long-time penpal was now a real-time school friend. While at first it was a little difficult getting used to talking to her rather than write to her, it became easier by each cup of coffee and each conversation it brought along. Now, it felt as though they had always been together, nevermind the language and geographic barriers.

Swinging the door open, she greeted her love-sick friend with her usual routine: a quick peck on both cheeks, a squeeze, and a hearty 'hello!' before beckoning her to come in, it's cold outside.

"Here, let me take your jacket." She offered, arms extended forward to do just that.



Imo felt some of her bad mood (just a little) melt away with Alba's affectionate greeting and kissed her back when she embraced her. On her part, any weirdness that arose from having her long time penpal off the page and actually around physically in her life had worn off. She was still learning Alba's habits – eventually she'd learn them as she had learnt Aggie's – but the stunned reaction everytime she saw her had been replaced with extra fondness. She was here now, not far away, and Imo could share more than just words and the odd polaroid with her.

“Hey honey, how're you? And happy Valentine's Day!” She said, holding out a small, bright red package as soon as she'd shrugged off her coat.



"Oh, you know, just the usual. Studying too much, and not doing near enough theatre props." Especially since she's patrolling Destiny City every night, was her silent thought as she gently placed the coat on top of her bed. Surely, none of the glitter and paper scraps will get to it from there.

"How about-" As she turned, her sentence should have ended with a precarious 'you' clinching tightly by a question mark, but instead, it was cut short by a gasp from her sweet surprise in seeing the little red box resting in Imo's hands. "Oh!"

Instead of taking the gift like any other normal person would, Alba instead twirled around and walked towards her dresser in the corner of her room. Opening a drawer revealed a calamity of silky cloths and wraps, all of which were obscuring her sought-after artifact. Diving her hands deeper into the soft and fibrous depths of the drawer rewarded her with her own small box, which she procured for Imo to see. It was wrapped with what appeared to be something that had belonged inside that drawer, a paisley design in deep browns and oranges.

"I was going to save this for the end of the day, but I believe now is a better time than ever to exchange." Grinning, she offered her small gift to her friend. Should she choose to open it, she'd find a lovely little card hand-crafted by Alba herself, as well as a friendship bracelet made of dark browns, reds, and plum threads and accented with a single light blue bead.



“I'm okay...feel better for being with you, rather than sulking in my room about having an entire year with not a hint of a lovelife.” Unless you counted Gemini. Gemini who she'd killed a youma with and who'd walked her home and who she'd then embaressed herself in front of. Imo wasn't sure if she ever wanted to see the mysterious, lovely senshi again. Probably a good thing since the only reason a senshi would come near her was if something monsterous was trying to kill her. But there was also deep embaressment and the knowledge her crush was even sadder than crushing on a movie star or pop singer. She was a senshi she'd met for all of three quarters of an hour, half an hour of which had been fighting the Tooth-Fairy and the rest showing the Zodiac just what a moron she was.

She decided she wasn't counting Gemini and she wasn't thinking about it as she exchanged gifts with Alba. Focus on the now and good times with one of her two very best friends in the whole world. Friends were far better and more important than a few flirtous remarks from a tartan clad stranger she'd likely never see again. Besides, today was about all kinds of love not just romance (nice as it would have been) and she did love her friend Alba. It was unfair to sulk on her like this.

Imo exclaimed over the pretty package and instantly put on the bracelet, before looking to see what Alba'd make of her gift. There was a card she'd made and a silver pendant of what looked like a cloud bank on a chain. It was flat metal that laid across your collarbone.

“I thought because it was silver it sort of looked like a stormfront. I know how you love to watch storms.”

She'd been turning the bead on her bracelet this way and that, seeing how it caught the light, when her hair had been ruffled. She chuckled and watched as her friend opened her gift.

"I'm glad you like it." Imo beamed Alba one of her brightest smiles - the one that said you-are-everything, that was openly adoring and made some people squirm. Just as she overemoted her feelings she was often too zealous with her friendships as well. If Imo cared you, you'd have to be blind not to notice.

She felt like she'd cheated a little with the necklace Alba was admiring and her other gifts. Since she'd been short on time due to catching up at school and short on money lately (not your typical rich Crystal chick!) she'd rummaged through maybe eighteen second-hand, charity and antique shops until she found good stuff. Pre-owned but still beautiful. But she doubted her friends would mind.

Imogen felt like doing some sort of twirl step, seeing Alba put on her gift erased her residual guilt about it's charity shop origins. She knew the raindrop was likely from some fancy boutique but off it had come. Her silver storm clouds lay like a stormfront along Alba's collarbone instead now.

"It's sort of a Christmas present too, since I wasn't about for that." She explained, as they embraced, Imo giving as good as she got as always. The redhead wasn't shy giving affection. She'd missed Christmas and her own sixteenth, during Barren Pines. But not to worry! She was here for V-day.

Imo let herself be led to where the array of crafting supplies lay ready for them to make their cards and favours. Trust Alba to have it all laid out and prepared like this. She smiled fondly as she settled down.

"I'd love a cup, thankyou. Is there anything I can get started on for you?" She gestured to the supplies. She doubted Alba would want help with the tea, but she could get cutting lengths of ribbon or something.

While she waited for her friend to return, Imogen had a look around for some odds and ends to get ready to craft some cards. While red, white and pink were undoubtedly the mainstays of Valentine's Day, her own signature colours tended towards red, yellow, orange and brown and she did want her gifts to have a personal touch. Happily, amongst Alba's supplies there were all sorts of colours.

"Honey please, though that smells fantastic as it is...and no besides friends, not really. Not that my friends aren't special." She smiled. WouldnotfocusonbeingsinglewithnoprospectsorGemininuhuh. She was perfectly happy. So there. If she felt like moping it could wait until after that Singles Awareness party, if she ended up going.

"There's you, though you're here, and Aggie, some friends from Crystal and my roomie, and maybe Sue. Though he might not appreciate it. He's not really a hug-y person so I think a Valentine's, even a friendship one, might be a bit awkward."

She accepted the tea with a thank you and got to stirring. It smelled lovely, and while it wasn't her beloved coffee, she was sure she'd enjoy it. The other girl usually had good taste in things. If Alba liked it, Imo usually found she'd likely like it too.

"Whose Simon? Is he a student around here?" Imo copied, lightly teasing. The boy's name included in Alba's list had indeed surprised her and made her look up from glancing at the paper again, mentally planning her cards. She took a quick sip of tea before setting her tea down and answering her friend's question.

"Sue is...well, it's a bit weird. Sue is a fellow survivor from that organ ring - " Bullshit it was an organ ring but that was the offical explination. "- and I suppose you could say we bonded over the trauma, we both saw each other first after waking up in hospital. I trust him and we hang out sometimes, even though he's a bit grumpy and I can't read him very well. But I want him to like me. Not obviously like me, because, hello, girls please! But yeah."

(Sorry this is so short and late - do you want to fade out on your post with them gossiping as we talked about?)

"He sounds nice, I'm glad you guys met. You'll have to introduce us sometime." She said, happy that Alba had met someone she connected with so well. Imogen was not a jealous person, she knew she belonged with Alba as one of her very greatest friends and couldn't begrudge her having a best friend in another. After all, she had Aggie as her BFF, so it'd make her a hypocrite anyway.

But that didn't mean she wasn't curious about him!

"Though...a panty raid? You just have to tell me that story! It's bound to be funny and just a little scandelous, though, poor Simon. When was it?" Imo giggled and left her friend with an opening to share her tale about the great panty raid, while she picked up some scissors and paper. They could gossip and catch up while they made these valentines.