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Recent events had left West with quite a lot to think about, and while most of his thoughts were not unpleasant in the least, they were distracting and decidedly ghoulish, at least in his opinion. Like the ones he was having right now, for instance.

His thumb brushed the strip of photographs he held loosely in his hand, the faintest of smirks lifting the corners of his mouth. He had long ago stopped trying to deny the memories that had been created this time last year, and sure enough, they had slowly returned. Everything from her slap to his disappointment that some machine had insisted they weren't compatible had come trickling back, bringing with them feelings of helplessness and foreboding. He had never been very good at this sort of thing.

The boil's head snapped up as Levi's shadow cut across his room. He turned and grinned, slipping the pictures under a tattered notebook. West wasn't sure when it might be the right time to bring those up, but he certainly wasn't about to open a conversation with them. Remember when we weren't ourselves and I kind of got you a teddy bear and we almost danced... Hmph.

"Hey," he said as he opened the window. "What's up?" The urge to tease her about using the door sparked and fizzled. She would do exactly as she pleased anyway.

It... was... coming around. What? He nodded, trying very hard to look like he knew exactly what she was talking about as his tail greeted hers. The boil couldn't help but brighten slightly when she finally named the holiday, partially because he actually didn't mind doing something for it if she wanted to, but mostly because he was glad she hadn't made him guess at what the hell she was talking about. He liked to think he would have gotten there eventually anyway, but even though he had been immersed in his own thoughts on the subject before she had arrived, there was no guarantee.

"Yeah, it is," he replied, trying to recall the date to determine just how close... oh, s**t. It was very close. "Didn' realize jus' how soon it was," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Not that I don't wanna... What d'you wanna do?" he said with a chuckle. And no, he didn't mean anything like that.

He silently hoped she hadn't said anything terribly important between poking her fingers into his hair and sitting on his bed because if she had, he would never respond to it. Ever. The boil dropped to a seat beside Levi, considering what happened to be her second question with a great deal of gravity, perhaps more than it deserved. The concentration he had been maintaining to keep himself from grabbing her or letting out some fairly ridiculous laughter was losing its focus, thankfully. West shoved his hands between his thighs and the mattress, just in case the impulse returned.

"Out," he said with next to no hesitation, adding something more when he realized how abrupt he'd been. "Could always get somethin' t'eat. Or maybe th' school's still plannin' a party'r somethin'." He hadn't heard a peep from the student council since Jericho had returned and all of that recent crown business had cleared up, but Riley and them could probably whip up something in time if they tried. To be honest, West's only real requirements were that he and the tatzel be in control of their own thoughts and that they have fun. He had always enjoyed going out with... her... the one or two times they had made a big deal of it. He wanted those memories gone, replaced by something better. The demon smirked.

"Y'don't have t'wear anything y'don't want to," he said. Yes, West liked to buy clothes, and as long as his parents hadn't cut him off, their money was Levi's. "Unless y'wanna shop. Are you telling me you want new clothes?" His smirk had grown, and with his last words he tugged his hands from where he had them pinned. It was his turn to ghost his hand through her hair, fingers lingering on one of her soft ears for a moment before he reclaimed them.

Her reaction went far beyond anything he had expected, and West's hand almost rose to her ear again on its own to elicit more of a response, at least until her head dropped into his lap. No, this wasn't uncomfortable at all. The boil thought about it for another half a second. Maybe uncomfortable was the wrong word. No. Yes. No. Hm. It didn't matter anyway. He dropped his fingers into her hair, gently smoothing them across her ears like he did with Master on occasion. Really this was nothing like that at all.

"If we're jus' hangin' 'round together then we can dress any way we like," he said, voice low. "So, yeah. If y'want a big puffy hat or some fancy tail muff'r somethin', I'll come t'the maul with you an' get ya one." The teasing lilt in his voice intensified as he spoke, but its volume remained low. He said he would go to the maul, but he would have preferred to stay right where they were.

Eventually, however, he drew his hand away, leaning back on the bed and propping himself on his palms. "Guess we should go if we're gonna." The place was probably packed with last minute Scarentine's shoppers trying to be more human than most.

"Yeah, they do," he said with a half-resigned, half-contented sigh. "Dunno 'bout fer tails like yours though. Most demon tails're... you know... thinner gen'rlly." He had only been joking about the whole tailmuff thing, but since she'd asked, he'd answered anyway.

"Right. No time like the..." He smirked at her as she sat up, reaching out to smooth down a bit of hair he'd pushed out of place. It was an obvious excuse to touch her one last time, but she'd done enough of the same recently to make him feel less guilty about it.

"Just wanna make sure we have enough time t'look around," he said, sliding forward and pushing himself slowly back to his feet. "Sooner we go, the sooner we can come back here. Or go t'your dorm." It was only a suggestion.