crash into you [FoY]

[chadwick]

Standing just inside the entrance of Diagon Alley, Chad Embers shoved his hands deep into his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. Clad in his best Muggle attire, Chad wanted to look nice for today. He had on a nice pair of pants and somewhat tidy shoes, a sweatshirt and a dress shirt underneath. It wasn't anything incredibly fancy, but it was nice and it was keeping him warm. Or that might have been the constant fidgeting he was doing. For the 100th time, Chad checked his now longer hair in the window of a nearby shop, making sure it looked alright. Chad hadn't been on a date in what seemed like forever, nor had he had a crush in forever. Now he was struggling through both.

After much debating and practicing in the mirror, Chad had finally plucked up the courage to ask Allegra out on a real date, instead of the makeshift date they're had the night they met. So far, he really liked her. She was nice and fun and cool, not to mention one of the prettiest girls he'd ever met. And now that he was standing in the Alley waiting for her, his nerves were coming back and he was beginning to worry. Did he look alright? How was his hair? Was the dab of cologne too much? He felt like a teenager again, so conscious of his appearance for the girl he was about to meet up with. For the last time, Chad fixed his shirt and forced his hands back into his pockets. Now all he could do was wait.

[closed]

[Allegra Thornton]

Allegra had dressed for warmth that evening, wearing a pair of jeans and a purple woolen sweater under her winter cloak, and she really didn't care if it showed off her figure or not. Those silly girls who wore their short skirts and their low cut tops, showing everything they had, were only going to get pneumonia, and really what fun was that? Did their dates like to be sneezed on? She highly doubted it. Besides, everyone looked dumpy in a hospital gown. Best to wait until bikini season, was Allegra's thinking.

Besides, when your date was a nice boy, things like that didn't matter and that was who she was meeting-- a nice boy. Or more correctly, a nice man. Chad was only a few years older, but seeing as he was out of school, yes Allegra could say she no longer dated boys. She wondered about this particular young man, who had seemed a little tense when they had first met in the Leaky Cauldron, but Allegra hoped that a second shot would make him relax a little.

She caught sight of him and weaved her way through the crowd until she was at his elbow, where she gave him a slight tap on the shoulder and a wide grin.

[chadwick]

Chad's eyes scanned around the crowd and checked his watch nervously. For a fleeting second, he wondered if he was being stood up. But then as he felt a tap on his shoulder, Chad turned around to see Allegra standing there, waving up at him. His cheeks automatically turned red as he felt stupid for thinking she wasn't going to show, but the colour faded almost as quickly as it had come and he just smiled at her, looking the girl over once. Even all decked out in the warmest of clothes, she still managed to look pretty darn great.
"Hey there," he greeted her with a warm smile, "How're you doing?"

Merlin, how lame had that been? Chad silently cursed himself, wishing he'd gone a different route. He didn't know why he was so nervous about this, he'd been on countless dates before and never had he been so conscious about how he looked or what he said. Usually, Chad was a sweet-talker and it was only a matter of time before he had a girl totally wrapped up in him. But now, with Allegra, he was like a bumbling moron, and it was almost painful to listen to.

[Allegra Thornton]

"I'm cold!" Allegra chirped gleefully, sounding ironically chipper while answering with what might be construed as a complaint. She bounced on her toes with a wide grin on her face and hugged her arms around herself. "I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to winters being this cold." Yes she was cold, but she knew she'd warm up soon enough once they started walking around.

[chadwick]

The Quidditch ref couldn't help but grin as the girl was so enthusiastic about being cold. However, he didn't want her to suffer, so he decided to be a gentleman and offer her something to keep her warm.
"Would you like this?" Chad asked, already half-way out of his sweater. He pulled it over his head and handed it to her in case she wanted to take it. He was still fairly warm without it and he knew he's survive without it.

[Allegra Thornton]

"Don't be silly!" Allegra answered, poking at him slightly. She appreciated the gesture, but wasn't about to take his sweater. "If I take that, then you'll be cold. Besides, once we start moving around, I'll be okay," she finished off with another wide grin.

"So what are we doing first?" she asked, anxious to get started. She had been to the Festival before, but this was going to be different she felt.

[chadwick]

"Really, I'm fine without it," Chad tried to convince her, still holding it out for her to take, "It might make you smell kinda manly, but it'll keep you warm." He winked at her and chuckled softly. The offer would still be open, even if Allegra was going to wait until she was shivering to take it. Draping the sweater over his arm, Chad looked down the packed Alley in front of them and sighed deeply.
"Wherever you'd like to you," he told her with a shrug, "I haven't had a chance to get down here before today, so I'd like to see as much as we can. Anything you'd recommend?"

[Allegra Thornton]

{you got off JUST as I was posting }

"I'm fine," Allegra insisted positive that she would not be taking Chad's sweater unless the temperature dropped drastically. "I would hate to smell manly or anything." She made a silly face at him, but really wouldn't have minded having his scent on her. He smelled pretty nice.

"It depends what you like," she answered, finding just being there to be fun. "They have shops and things, music, performers, food, crafts." She took his hand and led him deeper into the crowd, talking over her shoulder at him and not exactly sure where she was going yet.

[chadwick]

"Offer's still open," Chad to told her with a warm smile. He watched the girl for a moment, trying to decide what he wanted to do first. It all looked like it would be fun so he wasn't really sure where to start. Then suddenly, Chad could feel Allegra's warm touch on his hand. He looked up at her as she started leading him into the crowd and he could feel his cheeks slowly starting to warm up and bring colour to his face. He hoped he'd be able to just pass it off as the cold getting to him.

"F-food sounds good," Chad offered. The idea of food was good because it meant his mouth would be busy and he wouldn't be able to talk.

[Allegra Thornton]

"Food it is then," Allegra chirped, pointing to where a number of booths and tables had been set up. The warm delicious smells wafted thought he air and while she hadn't been really all that hungry a moment ago, now she was. She wasn't sure what Chad would go for, but she was pretty much open to anything as long as it was warm and tasty.

[chadwick]

Chad followed along behind and as soon as they got closer, the smell of all the food wafted to Chad and his mouth started to water. There was so much that looked good, he wasn't sure where to start.

Looking at all the food, Chad wanted to go for something hot. He stopped at one booth where the food was steaming and it reminded him of a cartoon when the food has the lines of deliciousness coming off it. Letting out a content "mmm" the man turned back to Allegra.
"What are you getting?" he asked.

[Allegra Thornton]

"Everything!" Allegra answered hungrily, knowing in reality that she'd have to narrow it down quickly. "The meat pies look good." She was also considering the sausages, but knew that they probably wouldn't make her happy. The British tended to boil their meat and knew nothing of spices. She would need to pile on the peppers, onions, and saurkraut just to make it taste nice and she really didn't want to do that on a date.

[chadwick]

"Hungry?" Chad questioned rhetorically, holding back a laugh. He snorted slightly, but tried to pass it off as a cough. The man knew how so unbelievable it had been, but he let it blow over. Instead, he began eying the food and realized that he could probably eat everything too. He took a glance at the meat pies Allegra had pointed out and nodded in agreement, but that was when the sausage caught his eye.
"They look good, but these look better," he said, pointing at the sausage, "Although it's probably boiled, right? Eek, that's just gross." Chad has dismissed the comment the second it was out of his mouth and continued on.

"Everything just looks too good," Chad complained, "I could spend all day here."

[Allegra Thornton]

"I like the Italian sausages better," Allegra admitted in s low voice as if worried about hurting anyone's feelings. The British sausages couldn't help it if they didn't taste nice, could they? "I really miss Jody Maroni's back home. Those are the best sausages anywhere."

"That and In n Out Burger. And Tommy's. They need to bring Tommy's burgers to London I think." There were a lot of things that she missed about home, but maybe because she was hungry, all she could thinf of right now was the great food.

[chadwick]

"I'm more of a McDonald's kind of guy, myself," Chad told her with a sly grin as they exchanged their favourite fast food places, "Nothing beats McDonald's French fries." Another soft "mmm" escaped Chad's lips as he thought of the decadent, salty goodness. Moving down the lane of food a little more, Chad checked out what else was there so he could make a decision. Picking what he wanted to eat had never been this hard before.