One rose, two rose, four... [Vash]

[lux]

Vash Zwingli. Year 12.

'That was all the information Raphaël received about his intended Valentine's Day partner. Really, it had just been some silly school wide event for those who weren't exactly already seeing people... And at the time, Raphaël wasn't, so he had figured why not participate? He wasn't exactly terrible in the amour department, but this did certainly give him a chance to meet someone new.

Someone new, and an upperclassman apparently. He wondered if whoever was in charge of the whole deal even looked in to those things before pairing people up... Oh, how delightfully scandalous, he could already imagine now the legion of seniors that were assigned freshman. Those two age groups never did get along, ever, and he just felt pity for them.

But ninth grade... That was so long ago! An entire summer! The summer had surely seen Raphaël maturing enough to where he could easily wine and dine a twelfth grader... So, maybe there wouldn't be much actual wining and dining, but it surely still meant something!

Zwingli, though, the last name sure made him think. He had already met a young freshman by the name of Lili, afflicted with the same last name, and Raphaël wondered if now he was going to meet the older sibling of the young lady. Zwingli was most certainly not the commonest surname. If the sibling looked anything similar to her, he knew that he was in good standings.

And so, Raphaël van Sauers walked down the hall with a single long stemmed rose in his hands.

He knew nothing about his intended partner beyond name and year, but it was just enough to be able to ask a student working around the office to give him the locker number of his intended. It would be a good start, oui? At first, he had no idea what to do, if maybe he should just stand around outside of it awkwardly or try to leave a note and get in contact with Vash that way, but, eventually his Francophone roots had jumped up and nipped him with the perfect romantic plot.

Raphaël counted down the locker numbers one by one until he found the number he had been given.

Just perfect. The Luxembourger stepped up to it, looking around to make sure the hall was still clear. It would look a bit suspicious to be doing what he was going to under scrutinizing eyes... Thankfully, the lockers had rather large angled slits in them, perfect for shoving things that weren't intended to be in there through. He took the rose and started with the stem, smiling in triumph as it worked just as intended. He was even able to get the small bulb attaching the petals to the stem in through with no problem, and he knew that even if this one flower ended up bruised, there would be plenty more, Vash would probably never notice one...

Stopping just short of getting the entire flowered head through the ventilation of the locker, he cracked his knuckles quickly.

Showtime.

Placing a finger back on one of the petals, the one flower quickly became two identical ones. From two roses came four, from four came eight, and oh, this really was just so simple! Why had he never thought of it before?

It hardly too any effort before he was certain there were a good few dozen roses now stuffed in the locker. He waited until he could see the newly formed ones start to push against the vents from a lack of room to go anywhere else, and Raphaël felt rather pleased with himself as he stepped back from the locker.

Now...

He took a good few steps back before he started walking down the halls again. Classes would be out soon, and, hopefully this mystery Zwingli would stop off at locker before heading back to his dormitory. Raphaël waited until he was at least a full row of lockers away before taking up camp there to wait and watch what he was certain would be the best reaction of a romantic deed ever.

[finisque]

Class had ended, and the moment the bell rung, a crowd of students had formed, pushing and shoving each other, determined to be the first to escape from the classroom. Vash took his time to gather his books--he didn't plan on being part of the group of annoying students who didn't know when to shut up and move out of the door without pushing or shoving one another.

He moved out to the hallway once the crowd had left, walking towards his locker. He just wanted to put his books back in and escape from the stuffy hallway, back to his dorm, where he could rest.

He'd finally reached his locker after having to squeeze through the chattering students. He scowled at them--bunch of irritating, noisy brats--and pulled his locker open. And promptly shouted.

"WHO PUT FLOWERS INSIDE MY LOCKER?"

Roses. His locker was full of roses. Whoever had done this was going to pay. To think, that person had dared to sneak anything inside his locker--what was their motive, anyway? Were they trying to humiliate him?

...well, it only served to make him furious.

He glared at the students surrounding him. Was the one who did it among them? It was likely that they were, since they probably wanted to see his reaction.

He hoped they were terrified now.

"The person who did this had better own up," he snarled. He was going to shoot them--fill them up with holes--and they were going to regret having done this.

[...i'msorrythisissoshort. ;n; ifeelbad. ;A;]

[lux]

Raphaël only had to move to the side as someone came up to him, apparently wanting the locker behind him. It was no big deal, but the moment he had moved, he missed the fateful moment of the other opening his locker to notice the gift.

That much he could tell, especially since the next thing he heard was a rather loud and curt scream inquiring about them.

Looking over to the locker, he blinked. The teenager in front of it looks absolutely angry, glaring down everyone around him, and it really wasn't exactly the scene the Luxembourger had invisioned.

But at least Vash himself, oh, he did seem to look absolutely dashing--beyond the anger plastered quite obviously over his face. He did have the same blonde shade of hair of what Raphaël still assumed was his sister, and he even had such intense green eyes...

As much as he was wanting to turn around and walk away and pretend it didn't happen... He'd have to face the music and talk to Vash sometime or another. He wasn't going to just back out of this Valentine's day thing after all... It would be awful hard to romance someone if they thought they had some sort of creepy stalker following them.

So he might as well face the music, right? Especially since the other was declaring whoever did it should own up....

Walking up to the annoyed older teenager, he took a deep breath.

"Moien!" He cheerily greeted, waving to the attractive blonde. Raphaël made a beeline right for the lockers, taking one of the long stemmed roses from the locker. "If you're looking to inquire about the origin of these beautiful roses, well..."

Wait. What if Vash's powers were... Frightening? He hadn't exactly thought about that before... Vash could be ready to turn him in to a hunk of ice or melt him with laser beam eyes or... or something even more terrifying. Dying wasn't exactly on his agenda today.

"...Well, I'd have to say whoever did it must have only been sharing the sentiments of many! And these roses, my, they must have been quite expensive to take so many and leave them in your locker, a truly painstaking and time consuming endeavor."

He turned away from the locker, back to Vash, and smiled as he reached the rose out and tapped it on the other's face.

"So now, how about a smile instead, hm?"

[finisque]

Vash's head snapped up as a blond haired teen walked up to greet him. Was he the culprit? His eyes narrowed, and he glared at the other distrustfully. The other continued speaking however--not seeming to notice the fury in Vash's eyes--about the roses that were placed in Vash's locker.

He suddenly seemed to have thought of something, and paused in his speech, but finished his sentence not too long after. Vash eyed the other suspiciously. While the blond had not admitted that he was the culprit, he'd defended the culprit, which had already placed him in Vash's blacklist.

...even if it was not him who had placed the roses in his locker, he could have been an accomplice.

When the blue-eyed student turned to face Vash and tapped his face with a flower, asking for a smile, though, Vash saw red. "Stop touching my face with the rose." He snapped, pushing the hand away from his face.

He was not going to admit that his face had turned slightly red. If it was red at all, it was because he was worked up by the roses having been placed in his locker. Definitely not because of that blond male. Who just had do such an embarrassing act in front of the huge crowd.

"Were you the person who did this?" Vash asked bluntly, gesturing towards the locker which was still filled with roses. It seemed like something the blond would do as some type of prank. "Or did you at least have some hand in this."

Vash was already irritated beyond belief by then. By both the culprit and this student. He wished that the culprit would own up, so that he could his anger out on them.

Vash wondered how simply opening his locker ended up in so much trouble.

[lux]

Stop touching his face?

Oh, but his face was such a delight once it lit up with just a dusting of red on his cheeks! Raphaël twisted the rose in amusement, even if he did have the urge to just keep it right where it was. No matter the hardened exterior, he could just tell that if the other was blushing, there was something else going on... Vash must have liked it, that much was certain.

Or he was having a heat flash, and the Luxembourger actually found it rather temperate, himself.

"Did I do this?" He pulled the rose away, pressing the petals instead to his own lips. He pursed them, looking around for a moment, trying to think exactly what to say. "You mean, this terrible, horrible and unthinkable travesty that seems to have befallen your locker? Well, I would never dream of defacing someone else's locker like this!"

Raphaël took a deep breath, taking the time to just smell the rose. The scent just brought him back to the fields of flowers in Europe, especially going as a young child to the Netherlands to watch assorted flowers bloom during the spring. Vash getting angered really wasn't exactly how he planned this to go, but it was hard work trying to guess how someone would act! He wasn't a mind reader, for goodness sake.

"Non, I didn't have a hand in it at all! What would make you think that? Just because I came to help you? Tsk. Even though I'd love to take credit, whoever did this must have really had a good eye..."

He gathered the rest of the roses from Vash's locker, quite a task considering how many there had actually ended up being. With the flowers gathered in his arm, he turned back to Vash, offering them out to him.

"I don't believe we've met yet, though. Raphaël van Sauers. And you?"

A few white lies never hurt anyone.. much.

[finisque]

If nothing else, this blond haired student certainly was overdramatic. Vash wouldn't be surprised if he actually was in the drama club. He rolled his eyes at the other's dramatics. He couldn't understand why the blond felt the need to embarrass himself in such a way in public.

He was surprised that he'd never seen the other till today. He would have thought that such a dramatic student would be easy to spot, but he had never before met the other. Until today. And what a humiliating situation...

Vash had never had such a thing happening to him before--roses that filled his locker was definitely not an everyday occurrence--so he actually did not have much of an idea how to react. So he simply switched to his default reaction--anger.

After all, cleaning his locker of the roses would have been troublesome.

He would not believe that anybody placed the roses in his locker in any attempt to woo him--he hardly talked to anybody, and probably intimidated those he spoke with. It really was unimaginable that anybody had been trying to do anything but humiliate him.

Vash was actually grateful that the blond had appeared. At least he wouldn't have to bear even more humiliation by carrying around an armful of roses, searching for a garbage bin to throw them away.

He was still annoyed that the culprit hadn't owned up, though.

"My name is Vash Zwingli." Vash replied when the other introduced himself as Raphaël van Sauers. As much as he had irritated Vash earlier, it was only polite to introduce himself in return, when the other had helped him remove the roses.

He glanced at Raphaël; he actually wasn't bad looking. Decent looking--many would even consider him good looking. His hair was a pretty shade of blond, and his eyes were blue, with a cheeky glint to them, and...

...and Vash was tempted to slam his head against his locker. Why was he thinking such disgustingly sappy things?

...Vash still was suspicious of Raphaël, though. Nobody would simply waltz up to a fuming person for no reason but to help them. Nobody would really dare. Especially if the angry person was somebody with the ability to materialise guns and shoot at others. However, Vash still did owe him his gratitude, for helping him clear his locker. So Vash decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I'm going to believe you when you say that you weren't the one who did this. So who else do you think could have been the culprit?" Vash asked. He was desperate to find the culprit and make them pay for whatever embarrassment that he had suffered today.

[lux]

Vash Zwingli!

So, he had been at the right locker. Raphaël was rather pleasured at this news, and he kept the roses rather close to his body. He simply wasn't this dramatic normally, despite the impressions he was probably giving... It just so happened that the only thing that could make him dramatic like this was amour, or well, the prospect of it since it certainly didn't seem like Vash was going to be bending to his whims any time soon.

But Vash was trusting! That was always a good thing. Even if, well, the Luxembourger wasn't exactly telling the truth.. He'd probably pay for lying later, but he could deal with that.

"The culprit? Well... Whoever the culprit was, he must have had style, let me tell you that!" Really, he didn't know what to say, and so he was just trying to get away with saying anything he could so it wouldn't be silent. "But as to the mystery man's identity... No, I really don't have much of an idea!"

The gears were turning steadily in his head as he tried to figure out what to do. He shut the older blonde's locker closed before turning back to him, a small smile on his face.

"But... Perhaps if you weren't busy..." He switched the roses from hand to hand, the small smile turning to a smirk. "Well, I would be more than glad to help you try and figure out who it was... Over dinner, maybe?"

That would work... Right? So what if it wasn't quite Valentine's Day yet... There wasn't anything saying that they couldn't exactly go for a date before then, right? That is, if Vash would even take the bait.

"It would be my treat, certainly, so how about it?"

He tried to seem entirely nonchalant about it, like rather, he was doing Vash a favor. And the blonde couldn't really have known that it wasn't the case anyway, since Vash didn't know that it was his whole plot in the first place...

[finisque]

Was Raphaël asking him out on a date? Vash stared in shock. He wouldn't have been as shocked if he'd been asked out by the blond in a different circumstance, but asked like this? In the hallway? In front of so many students?

Vash felt horrified. Was the blond's main goal to embarrass him? He felt heat travel to his cheeks. He couldn't believe that Raphaël had practically asked him out in front of the crowd.

Certainly, it wasn't technically phrased as a date, but he had asked Vash to join him for dinner. That was definitely an invitation to a date.

Vash had never been asked out on a date before. He'd never been interested enough to find someone to go out with, and he supposed that he was probably too short tempered for anyone to really want to approach him. It never really bothered him at all.

But being suddenly asked out to dinner--well, he was definitely going to refuse the offer. He did not want to sit through dinner with this blond, after he'd been embarrassed in front of so many people by him. And just as he opened his mouth to refuse, he heard Raphaël's next sentence.

It was Raphaël's treat. Hearing the blond offer to treat him made everything change. After all, if Vash was being treated, it meant that he didn't have to spend any money.

And not spending any money meant that he could save money. And saving money was a good thing. A very good thing. He wouldn't have to buy dinner, at least. That was for certain.

Vash considered his options. Agreeing to dinner with Raphaël, and being able to save money, versus rejecting dinner with Raphaël, and having to spend more money just to buy dinner. It wasn't very hard to choose.

However, having to agree to that in front of the entire crowd--it wasn't something that Vash really wanted to do. He had his pride. And his pride was preventing him from saying anything but no in front of that large crowd.

Vash glanced away from Raphaël. He really didn't want to say anything in front of the crowd, but saying that he'd reply later would make him feel like a coward. And rejecting the offer would be rejecting a chance to save money. There was only one thing he could do.

Vash glanced towards the lockers, and felt his face heat up even more as he opened his mouth to reply.

"F-fine. I'll join you for dinner."