Angus jogged in the mornings; Dawin was aware of this, not in the way some of the more forward girls were all-too-aware of it, but really just because he liked Angus, and this was a part of who Angus was. It was important, and more important still, it was a way to meet up without any awkwardness or sense of deliberation, without Dawin having to go knocking on a door or interrupting at lunch and getting his tray dumped down his front.

Instead, it could be an accident. Kind of. It could look like an accident, at least, Dawin huddled just inside the door to the dorms with a book spread open in front of him, pretending to read something tediously boring about locks and how lock mechanisms worked. Not his usual fare, it was probably a loaner. In reality, he kept shooting glances up over the top of it and outside, crossing his fingers and toes that the rain wasn't going to prevent Angus from going for his morning outing.

Dawin wasn't sure he could deal with hunting Angus down more directly than this.

It was Dawin's lucky day. He did see Angus, jogging up the steps as he glanced above his book again, his feet loping up the stairs lazily. His skin was pale from the cold, his brown hair wet and clinging to his neck like ivy. His lips seemed redder and his breath was white on every exhalation. Even with his running jacket on, he was soaked.

He looked exhausted and a little sad. He didn't see the other boy at first, he stopped once he was through the door and ran a hand through his hair, stripping most of the water from it. It hit the floor with a slap and Angus made an annoyed sound. He closed his eyes and put his fingers to his neck. He wasn't taking his pulse. He was just waiting for it to slow down. He glared at the stairs. He didn't feel like walking up them but damned if he was going to let Loshis stand in the way of his exercise regime.

He realised he could see something out of the corner of his eye that normally wasn't there.

"Dawin?" He asked, as he saw him.

He hadn't seen him in a little while. He'd been worried that was his answer.

...spotted. His goal had been to get spotted, hadn't it? But worse than that, he was spotted blinking up at Angus a bit like a deer in headlights, instead of just stealing casual glances up over the top of his book. He'd intended to be cool about this, but really, Dawin wasn't all that good at being cool.

"Ah." He did manage a smile, at least, shakily tucking a sheet of paper into the book and curling both arms in around it. "You're out of your mind. It's Loshis..."

Dawin didn't mean it, though. There was a touch of relief. He'd been worried Angus might not run in the rain, and the idea of approaching his lunch table was terrifying.

Angus smiled back, the effect slightly lessened by the fact that his lips were now trembling from the cold. The exercise had been keeping him warm before but he was fast cooling.

"Physical fitness cares not for the weather!" He said, flexing his right bicep, though it was invisible beneath his jacket.

He rubbed his arms, wondering whether he should strip off his jacket to get a wet layer off. He decided against it, since the wind was still blowing into the entry way.

"Well, I uh, think I better go get changed. Don't want to catch a cold..." Angus said, not quite wanting to leave. He wasn't sure he wanted to stay either, he was beginning to assume Dawin had turned him down and wasn't sure his company would be entirely welcomed when it was just them, alone, in a cold room while one of them wasn't wearing much in the way of clothes.

If you didn't want to court someone, even someone as gorgeous as Angus hoped he was, you probably didn't want to see them in shorts. Angus wondered if it was time to put more effort into his calves again. He missed football already. Stupid Loshis.

"Oh. Oh, yes, you should..." Get out of wet clothes into dry ones. Dawin looked vaguely uncomfortable, embarrassed, shooting a look down to the closed book in his hands and shifting fingers against its pages. His nails were a mess, chewed ragged, and he immediately curled them in under the cover of the book to hide the mess.

"I can walk you, if you'd like?" There was a smile, but it was almost panicked. How was he supposed to know if he was doing this right? Angus would give him a sign, hopefully. "I. Ah. I mean, if you don't mind."

Angus resisted the almost instinctual urge to make a comment on walking men to their rooms so they could change. It was difficult. It was a trial, worse than any test he'd ever sat. He managed, although he did smile a bit harder than was necessary.

"That'd be nice." He replied, offering his hand so Dawin could use it to help get up. "I'm on the second floor."

It was amazing he managed to get home some nights. Those stairs were a menace when you were three sheets to the wind.

Dawin was still ridiculously cute.

Dawin set his hand in Angus's, fumbling with the book and his back and getting to his feet with an almost impressive lack of grace. He was left swiping at his pants, fumbling his bookbag up over his shoulder, rubbing at his eyes and offering Angus another of those nervous little smiles. Cute, maybe, but Dawin certainly wasn't the sort of boy most people got crushes on...

He had to clear his throat and focus, digging for words that had almost certainly been rehearsed in front of a mirror. "Sorry I, ah. Sorry it took me a bit to find you." Dawin took one step toward the stairs, fidgety, turned so that he could keep Angus in his sight.

Angus followed Dawin up the stairs, his smile lifting up more on one side than the other. He raised an eyebrow, cheeky. Angus wasn't the world's most difficult person to find. Angus was being rude by drawing attention to that fact at all. He looked like he didn't quite believe Dawin but was going to let it slide.

"Well, you've found me now." He said, his voice rising up encouragingly. "So it's all for the good."

He led them both up the stairs, along the corridor to his room, now shaking a bit from the cold. He wanted to invite Dawin in but he imagined changing in front of the man, boy, man? Whatever. He imagined changing in front of him would give Dawin a heart attack.

He wasn't really into those.

"Look, I'll just change into something warmer and I'll be right out, ok? Maybe we can get something in the common room." Angus patted Dawin's shoulder and disappeared into his room.

What was he going to even wear? Angus wasn't sure what the appropriate attire was for conversations in the common room. He wondered if his mum knew, although she was less fashion savvy than Angus was.

Dawin ended up waiting twenty five minutes, before Angus appeared, wearing a off-white shirt, a red jumper and a black coat. His boots were a bit scuffed but his pants were pressed and neat. He'd scuffed the shoes himself, against the front steps of his dorm building. His hair had been dried roughly with a towel and brushed back with his fingers. It was still forming damp tendrils against his skin.

A protest was swallowed as Angus disappeared into his room, leaving Dawin standing in the hall in an awkward sort of way, peering up and down at the line of doors and rubbing at his eyes. This was proving much more difficult than it really should have been; all he'd meant to do was say 'yes' and set a time and date and find out how formal he had to be. Instead, it was turning into a production.

When Angus opened the door again, he was settled on the floor with his back against the wall and that book open across his knees -- but he was mostly just staring at it, not really reading, a bit vacant, head in his hand. He straightened, and blinked up at Angus, eyebrows raised, jittery. "...ah. Better?"

Dawin fumbled to put his book back into his bag and shoved himself up to stand in a gangly, off-balance way, relying heavily on the wall behind him.

"Much, thank you." Angus said, smiling and glowing with health.

He wasn't really glowing, he just felt like he was. Going out for a run usually made him feel quite good about himself.

Angus watched Dawin lean against the wall and waited, hoped, for him to say something.

Angus had all kinds of reasons to feel good about himself. Dawin hesitated a moment, just blinking across at him and taking in his cheery expression, the brightness that clung to him from his run, and took it in before clearing his throat.

"Did you still want to go out, maybe?" Casual? Hardly; he sounded jittery, and his fingers shifted and clutched around the edges of his book. But he was trying, anyway.

Angus looked as though summer had come early. It was like a lamp had been lit, illuminating his face and shining off his straight, white teeth. One could almost hear the holy chorus playing just for him.

"Yes, I would quite like that." Angus said, expending a rather large amount of effort to stop himself from raising his hands into the air.

He had really wanted to try courting Dawin. He'd missed his company in the past few days. It wasn't that he felt Dawin owed him anything, he'd just really, really hoped that they might get on. That way. Step one, accomplished. Now on to step two.

"Do you like Mugrobi cuisine?" Angus asked. "I know a nice place, very casual and the waitstaff are very friendly."

Angus felt very good about himself. Moreso than usual.

Angus's smile made Dawin shift, blush, unsure if he was pleased or worried -- or maybe some strange mix-up of the two. He did like Angus, that was certain, so it was just a matter of deciding if he Liked Angus. He was starting to think maybe he did, but having never really experienced the sensation before...

"I, ah. I'm not as familiar with it as I should be, maybe." That sounded very elegant, didn't it? He flushed darker, but definitely pleased, this time. "Wherever you want to go, I just...have to know how...formal."

Angus had sort of suspected that maybe Dawin had never been on a date before ever and the thought pleased him, sort of. He recognised a potential in himself to hurt the younger man and he didn't want to. He was not going to be that sort of person, if he could avoid it.

"Not formal at all, just dress like you did when we went out during the break. I promise not to wear anything overly elaborate, my craveats will be linen only, galdor's honour." Angus said, placing a hand over his heart.

He was looking forward to it. He'd missed courting, after a break from it. It felt like time to try it out again.

"Is there a day that suits you?" He asked, hoping to get things organised before Dawin got too uncomfortable.

"Any day. I mean, I don't have other plans." He drew one corner of his mouth in between his teeth, head tipped to consider Angus, trying to keep himself from getting too uncomfortable. This was just dinner. It was something people did all the time. It was no big deal. Except that it kind of was.

"Maybe just not too late, if I have class." He blinked, shifting the book between his hands and trying to decide if that had sounded dismissive, or uninterested, and clarified, "Or on a weekend, so we...I don't know, Angus, you tell me."

"How about the third tenth, then? I don't have anything on then..." Angus offered, happy to choose a date. "I can meet you at your dorm."

((SFSR!))

"...oh. Oh, yes..." That was a long way off. Ten days; Dawin blinked up at Angus and hesitated just a little. Ten days was enough time for him to change his mind, or to start questioning, or to freak out and run away to Mugrobi or a hundred other crazy schemes. He didn't want that to happen, but didn't trust himself not to let it.

"You should. Um. Lunch. You should come sit with me." Because there was no chance Dawin was going to sit with Angus.

"I'd love to!" Angus replied.

He was avoiding his best friend and he wanted to spend more time with Dawin, win win.

"So, I guess, maybe we could get some tea? I wanted to know how the book was going." Angus said, turning towards the common room again and hoping that perhaps they could pretend that things were exactly as they had been and Dawin could relax.

"...ah, the book, right..." Dawin pivoted, hesitating only a moment before starting after Angus. It took him a moment to fall in and match the older boy's steps, his books hugged in against his chest and his lip drawn in between his teeth. Watching his feet, mostly, and not Angus beside him, but there was really nothing new there.

"Well, I've been a bit busy. I haven't been working on it as much as I should." Instead he'd obsessed about a potential date. Alas. "I can show you what I have, though, I suppose?"

The act of walking was meditation for Angus, a soothing passtime in itself. He felt his arms loosen and his stride slow. He was much more comfortable with a game plan. Angus wasn't the sort to enjoy having all things determined but he did like to have a strategy. Currently, his strategy was to go out for a date in a week and not cock it up. He was going to be Mr Gentleman. Dawin was going to have Fun and stop Worrying. Especially Worrying about Angus.

Sure, he probably wasn't going to be able to give him a kiss at the door when they went home but they were galdori. A race taught from birth to be as sexually repressed as possible, until marriage, afterwhich they were supposed to be just sexually repressed enough to produce children without being heard by the neighbours.

Angus had patience. He was going to make Dawin at ease in his company, godsdamnit because he liked Dawin. He was so bookish and different to what Angus was used to. He could live with being less of an outrageous flirt for a while, he had other outlets. The gods gave him Mrs Palm and her five lovely daughters for a reason. He was going to be fine.

"That'd be great." Angus said, walking along and hoping that they were at least approaching normal again, a little.

((EoT?))