Go Slow

[Jennifer Moon]

Jen had been excited to know what Wash had in store for her after the dance ever since he had mentioned it. She had gone through the rest of the dance feeling like she was teetering on the edge of nervousness and excitement - she hoped it was a good surprise. So far, Wash had an okay record when it came to surprising her, so this one could really go either way.

She giggled as he led her out of the dance, grateful that she had thought to bring one of her heavier coats - it was more than a little chilly and she had forgotten to wear tights underneath her dress. "Where are we going?" she asked with a grin, pretending to be impatient.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

Wash had been planning this one for... a while. They'd had a conversation a while back, and he had gone into Salem that next weekend to acquire what he had needed for this. Now the dance was over, and the time for his master plan had come. "You'll see, you'll see." He squeezed her hand and led her toward the edge of the forest.

At they reached the aforementioned forest's aforementioned edge, a tent came into view. It was a little chilly, and he really wished he had worn a coat to the dance. That would have looked weird, though. "You mentioned you'd never been camping." He swung their joined hands in the direction of the aforementioned tent. "Happy Valentine's Day."

[Jennifer Moon]

She grinned as they approached the forest, wondering what Wash could possibly have in store for her that lay in the forest at night. They had talked before about how neither one of them really trusted the forest at night so Jen's nervousness was currently outweighing her excitement. She shivered slightly, her legs freezing. Whatever it was, she hoped it would be warm.

Her eyes widened when she saw the tent and she let out a little squeal of excitement. "You are the best boyfriend ever," she said, throwing her arms around him and kissing him soundly on the mouth before grinning and skipping off toward the tent.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

Wash kissed her back, waiting and smiling for a moment before jogging after her. "Last one there is a rotten egg!" He passed her, then slowed down a little bit. The tent had looked closer, and he had misjudged the distance from the gym to his tent. At least he was wearing pants. And the sleeping bags were warm, when they got there.

He tagged the tent when he got there and smiled wide. "Happy Valentine's Day." He hoped he she liked it. He had a feeling, based on the kiss and the best boyfriend ever thing, and yet he still worried. He had no interest in messing up.

[Jennifer Moon]

The shoes Jen had decided to wear to the dance were not very conducive to running, and so Wash passed her with ease and she pouted, giggling as she tried to catch up to him. "No fair," she said when she reached the tent. "You have longer legs, and plus, you're not wearing heels." She stuck her tongue out at him and laughed. "Happy Valentine's Day," she echoed, kissing him again.

She reached out to unzip the tent and climb in - it was decidedly warmer in the small tent than it was outside, and Jen wondered if Wash had done some sort of warming charm on it to make sure they were nice and toasty. "This is great," she said, shrugging off her coat and kicking off her shoes into the corner. "When did you have time to do all this?"

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"Those are both facts." He stuck his tongue out back at her. "Another fact: I beat you." He kissed her back, then followed her into the tent. He untied his shoes right quick and threw them in the corner next to hers. "Last weekend." Or something. "I made time." He was still patting himself on the back for this one.

He lay down on the ground, his ankles crossed. He was a little bit too tall, but he fit just barely, which was good enough. "I brought snacks, too." He nodded to the corner opposite their shoes, wherein resided a bag. Just in case the dance fare hadn't been enough, he had been prepared.

[Jennifer Moon]

She grinned and laid out on the second sleeping bag next to him, scooting up so that her head rested on Wash's shoulder. "Well, you really outdid yourself with this one," Jen said, reaching out and poking him in the side. She glanced over in the corner where he pointed to the snacks and she shrugged. "Maybe later. I think I had enough punch at the dance."

Jen nudged his foot with her own. "So are we spending all night out here? Because I definitely didn't bring any pajamas or anything," she said with a grin.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

He smiled and poked her back, his head leaning back against hers. "I do what I can." And this hadn't been all that difficult, anyway. A trip into Salem had given him the supplies he had required. "At least it wasn't... tampered with this time around." Neither she nor he had turned into a professor.

Wash snapped his fingers, annoyed at himself. "I didn't think of that part." Now he had to think fast. He'd figured out everything else, as far as he knew. "We could summon some?" He hadn't brought for himself, either. "I don't know."

[Jennifer Moon]

"Well... the tent will still be here if we leave and come back, right?" Jen asked, sitting up and looking down at her boyfriend. "We could run back to our legacies real quick. I don't think anyone will be at LPC - they're all still at the dance." She smiled. They had skipped out on the dance early because Wash had said he had a surprise, and Jen was too impatient to stay for more than an hour or two once he had told her. It was doubtful that anyone else had left the dance.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"We could do that, yes." He didn't sit up, but stared up at her. "But that would require getting up and running back to our legacies." He pouted and reached for her hand. "And I don't really feel like doing these things." Doing those things meant getting up and leaving the lovely confines of their tent. He didn't want to do that. Then again, they couldn't very well sleep in their dress clothes.

[Jennifer Moon]

Jen rolled her eyes with a smile, but placed her hand in his anyway. "Oh, come on. I'm not sleeping in this dress," she said, gesturing to the red fabric fanned out on the ground around her knees. "It's too pretty and I don't want to get it wrinkled." She gave him a pointed look before scrambling to her feet, attempting to pull him up with her.

"Come on, it'll only just take a few minutes! Please," she said, trying not to whine. "And then we can spend the whole night together." She gave him her best puppy-dog eyes and clasped her hands together.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"Fine..." He sat up and unzipped the tent, climbed out and offered her a hand. He had neglected to put his shoes back on, but that was alright. He would grab a spare pare of socks in his room. How long would it take him to get to Hope and Glory, to his room, and back? More importantly, how long would it take her to do almost the exact same thing, but with the Hippies House and her room?

His time would be shorter than her time, right? He had longer legs, as she had said before. And his run was slightly shorter. "I'll race you." He couldn't think of something to bet on it, but he would still beat her.

[Jennifer Moon]

She scrambled out of the tent after him, trying to slip her shoes and coat back on as she did so - it was harder than it looked. "Race me?" Jen sputtered, pulling her coat tightly around herself. "I mean, sure. I'm going to win this time, you know," she said, grinning up at him before tearing off as fast as she could back toward the Hippie house. "Catch you in a few!" she yelled, looking back over her shoulder.

Jen ran as fast as she possibly could back to her legacy house and up to her room, kicking off her shoes into the closet and struggling to undo the zipper on her dress before she realized she could probably use magic to pull it down without dislocating her shoulder. she hung the dress up carefully in the closet before throwing on her warmest pair of pajama pants, thick socks and running shoes, and one of the old Harvard hoodies her father had bought for her forever ago. She stuck her wand inside the pocket of the hoodie and was off again, determined to beat Wash back to the tent.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"Cheater!" She hadn't waited for an on your mark get set go or anything. But what was done was done, and Wash sprinted off toward his legacy home. By the time he got there, his tie was off and his shirt unbuttoned. At the top of the stairs, he was already summoning a black Boston hockey sweatshirt. Magic was a wonderful thing, and it wasn't long before he was racing back toward the tent, dressed in the aforementioned sweatshirt, gray pajama pants, and sneakers. He could still win, right? "Come on, Tommy!"

He saw her ahead of him as he burst out of his house, and ran as fast as he could. He'd caught her earlier, he could do it again. Then again, she hadn't been running before. He was overthinking it, right? They were just racing back to their tent. Wait, they were RACING back to the tent. Definitely not overthinking. A race was a race. Those were the thoughts in his mind when he nearly tripped and fell, but instead ran into her. "Sorry." The puppy was having none of this stopping business, and continued to run... forward. "Tommy, stop, you don't even know where you're going." His was not the smartest of dogs.

[Jennifer Moon]

"Oof," she said in surprise as Wash ran into her. She stumbled slightly, but her hands managed to grab at his sweater and she avoided the embarrassment of toppling to the ground. "It's okay," Jen giggled, watching the dog continue to run forward. "Is that your dog? I didn't know you had one."

She let go of his sweater and took his hand in hers as they walked back toward the tent - there was no need for racing now. "He's cute, just like his owner," she teased, poking him in the side. "What did you say his name was?"