Continued from this thread...

"I was born ready," Damien joked as Imari took his arm. She looked cozy in her warm outfit, and it made him wonder if she was really up for going outside and playing in the snow, or if she was just doing this because he wanted to. He was about to ask when she said something again.

"Playing in the snow is like trying to ride a bike with training wheels; one of the easiest things you'll ever do," Damien pointed out as he led her outside, using one hand to pull some black gloves out of his coat pocket. "I'll even stand still if you want to practice throwing a snow ball at me."

They stepped outside, the cold immediately nipping at their cheeks, Damien's already turning a nice red shade. "Brr," he said, "Didn't think it would be this cold!" It was roughly freezing outside and snow was falling from a gray, overcast sky. "Not the prettiest winter picture, but I think the snow will do." He looked at Imari, "You sure you want to go play?"

Imari looked at Damien as they stepped outside and laughed, a genuine non-shy laugh.  "I may not have played in the snow since I was young, but I still..." she stopped as she stepped close to him and in a rush of confidence whispered in his ear, "... but I still know how to cast a warming charm." She stepped away from him giggling and cast a spell on herself and then aimed one at him.  "Better?" she asked.

She walked a little ways ahead, she was in a state of ... well, something she couldn't place.  She hadn't felt this happy in a long time.  "So, snowman or snowball fight first?" she asked with a teasing grin.   "I bet I'll beat you either way."

"Much better," he said, glad that the cold wasn't completely numbing his bare face. Imari looked like a little girl; her teasing grins and giggles, it was making Damien's heart go a million miles an hour. Did she have any idea how happy she made him?

"Oh really, that sounds quite confident of you," Damien said, scooping down to pick up some snow, compacting it into a snow ball. Without warning, he threw it at Imari, not giving her much of a chance to get out of the way. He let go of it with a silly grin, knowing that by initiating this fight, he was going to be in for some well earned Slytherin-style revenge. Or as Slytherin-styled as Imari could get.

Imari felt the snowball hit her and she got an idea.  She hoped Damien would realize she was joking after it happened.  She brushed off the snow and turned around after giving him a look.  She pretended to be upset, but she was discreetly gathering snow with her wand.  She honestly didn't know how long she could pretend to be mad.  She held the snow in her hand and slipped her wand back into her arm holster.

She still kept her back to Damien as she shaped the snow into a snowball and hoped that he would ask if she was okay soon, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on.

Damien watched as Imari took the impact of the snowball and spun around, giving him a not very nice look. He wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but he felt his cheeks start to lose the warmth of the heating charm as he took a step towards Imari. "Boo," he said lightly, throwing out a soft nickname for Imari. "There wasn't ice in there right? I didn't mean to hurt you with it, oh my god, did it hurt?"

He waited for her to respond, but gave her a second to cool off. Imari seemed like she could be a tad bit hot-headed at time, and Damien didn't want to start a fight with her. He stood there, still as a statue before asking one more time. "Are you alright Imari?"

Imari almost felt bad for making him think she was hurt, but that feeling went away quickly as she packed the snowball tighter.  She hid the snowball behind her back as she turned back around to face Damien.  "No, there wasn't ice in the snowball... but you could of given me a little warning." she said as she stepped closer to him, "And I'm not angry." she said as she stood right in front of him.

She smiled as she leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "But I am a Slytherin." and grabbed his collar and dropped the snowball down his coat and shirt to rest against bare skin.  Imari backed away giggling madly and then decided it was best to run away.  She backed up slowly and waited for the reaction to hit.

Imari quickly turned to face him, one hand behind her back. He assumed that must have been where he had hit her and she was just avoiding showing him if it was red or if it stung. He smiled, "This is a snowball fight, honey. There is no warning." Damien took a step forward as she leaned towards his ear, confessing something that made his blood run cold.

And then everything was cold as the icy snowball was dropped into his shirt, right against his chest. He grabbed at his shirt as she skipped off, "That's so cold!" He shouted, doing his best to get the snow out of his clothing. "I can't believe you! You're actually playing dirty, using your adorableness against me. Gosh darn it, I should have seen that coming!" He continued to ramble, shivering as he got most of the snow out of his shirt.

Again, he scooped up a snowball and chucked it at Imari, "This means war Nichols! Get ready to experience the wrath of Damien Reynolds!" He shouted, diving for cover after throwing the snowball, scooping up more for another round of retaliation. He smiled, peering over the bench he'd lunged behind in search of his evil little girlfriend. Who knew she could be such a tricky person?

Imari ducked as Damien threw another snowball at her and laughed out loud.  She couldn't remember when she had this much fun before, at least at Hogwarts anyway.  She'd always hidden inside in the library when it had snowed because most of the older Slytherins liked to use her as a target.

She ducked behind a tree and scooped some snow up and then revealed her position long enough to toss the snowball in Damien's direction.  It missed by a mile... she'd never been good at this.  Then she began to use her sneaky side and hid behind the tree again and used her wand to gather snow and rolled it into snowballs.  Then, using a spell she'd found before Damien had joined her in the library, she sent all five she'd made towards Damien with a modified locator charm. 

She didn't peek around the tree to see if they'd reached their target, but she hoped they had.  She just hoped that Damien wasn't sneaking around the tree at that moment, because the way her heart was racing right now, she had no clue how she would react.

Damien ducked back behind the stone bench as the snowball came flying towards him, only missing him by five or six (or twenty) meters. "That the best you got!" He shouted, looking back up and noticing that he couldn't see her. "That's right! Cower in awe of my epic snowball skills!"

But he spoke way way too soon as five snowballs flew around a tree and headed straight towards him. He figured, hey, I'll duck and they won't hit me. But the rounded over the pile of snow and the bench in front of him and pelted him from above. Most of them soaked his hair with wet, icy slush; the rest just covering his shoulders and back.

He popped back up, wand in hand; scanning the courtyard again. Still no sign of Imari, so he used a simple spell to levitate a couple of snowballs he'd made. He'd learned in in Junior High after detention with his buddies. That was the first and last time he got in trouble, but the real bad troublemakers made for some good entertainment and a wealth of useless knowledge.

Damien crept forward towards the tree, pressing himself up flat against it. He peered around just a bit and caught sight of his dark-haired girl friend, obviously trying to hide herself. With a crazy battle cry, he jumped out and sent the little snowballs towards her, flicking his wrist carelessly, sending more snowballs at the tree than at Imari.

Imari jumped when she heard Damien behind her and moved quickly from behind the tree and giggled at him as she ran away, but she didn't notice the small patch of ice underneath the snow and slipped and fell.  She stopped laughing for a second as she registered the fall and then lay down in the snow and began to laugh again.

Damien grinned, chasing after Imari and slipping on the same patch of ice as she did. He slid a considerable distance before tripping up and landing face first in the snow. He let out a muffled laugh, turning over to see Imari a few feet away from him. "Wipeout!" He said laughing, trying to push himself up.

His muscles were sapped from the lack of energy he'd had in the first place, and now from the effort of running around in the freezing cold; snow down his shirt and in his gloves. "I'm so cold, brrr." He said, plopping himself down next to Imari, who was still laying in the snow. "Truce?" He asked, figuring she'd deny it.

Imari propped herself up on her elbow and faced Damien, resting her head on her hand as she looked at him with a smirk on her face, "Oh, I guess." she told him, "Since I'm clearly the winner." she tried to say it with a straight face, but it didn't work out since she was being sarcastic.  "This was fun, I'm glad I came outside with you."

With her other hand, Imari pulled the gaily wrapped box out of her pocket and held it in front of her.  "It's probably too much, but I thought you might like this." She said as she sat the box in the snow between them.  Suddenly her nervousness came back and she wanted to move away from Damien so she wouldn't be embarassed if he didn't like her gift, but she didn't.  Being with him had boosted her confidence, so she stayed right where she was, the only sign of nervousness was her inability to look up into his eyes.

"I hope you like it," she began, still not looking at him, "but if you don't...." she trailed off as she pushed herself up off the ground and crossed her legs as she sat with her back towards him.  Her confidence was waning.

"Of course you won," he said, trying to sneer. He ended up just sticking out his tongue out her and giving her a raspberry; similar to how a four year old would react to something of the sort. "I'm glad you came outside too, it's nice; even if you put freezing water down my shirt."

He accepted the brightly colored box with a smile, "Purple, my favorite! How did you know?" Considering the odds, Damien had grown quite fond of the color. It basically was his uniform day in and day out as it was. He used his wand to accio Imari's present out of the bag he'd ditched by the bench, the thin black box zipping towards them; Imari's present sitting inside of it.

"Let's open them at the same time," he said with a smile, glad that she had worked up the courage to give him a gift; it gave him a chance to give her the one he'd spent so long picking out. He started to pull off the ribbon on his box, "C'mon cutie, open it," he said, nudging her back with his elbow lightly. He didn't want to push her too far, Damien knew that this sort of behavior was odd for Imari; and he didn't want her to burn out when she was on such an obvious confidence high.

Imari looked at the box and then turned in the snow to face Damien, "Okay. On three."  She was planning on giving him a little bit of a headstart though, cause his was wrapped.  "One.  Two. Three." she said and waited a second before opening the box and revealing the beautiful necklace inside.  She was speechless.  Imari just sat there for what seemed like ages, not saying anything, it was beautiful, she'd never received anything like this before from someone who wasn't family and she wasn't quite sure how to react.

When she finally snapped herself out of it she looked up at Damien, "It's beautiful." She took the necklace out of the box and tried to fasten it around her neck, but failed to do so.  She sheepishly looked at him, "Would you mind?" she asked, holding the necklace out towards him, a blush rising in her cheeks.

Damien grinned, holding the end of the ribbon patiently as Imari counted to three. When she reached three, he tugged on the ribbon; slipping the wrapping paper off of the box before opening the lid; revealing a ring inside. It was perfect, and Damien smiled at the perfect sentiment as he slipped it onto his hand, knowing now that he would never stop thinking of Imari because the shine of the ring would catch his eye and remind him of her.

He looked up as she asked him to clasp it, and reached forward with gentle hands; taking the necklace and leanning forward, his arms resting on her shoulders as he clasped it behind her head. He clipped t together and pulled her hair over, leaving the nevklace to dangle on her neck. He leaned forward a few inches more to kiss her, hands still on her shoulder. "Merry Christmas Imari," he said, resting his forehead against her. If this wasn't love; he didn't know what was.