Let Love Begin [Eddie, Gaston Jr, Dusty]

[Nancy Panic]

The moment the professor dismissed the class, Nancy bolted straight toward the door, turning into a hummingbird once again, and to be honest, this form's heart was only beating a little faster than her half human/half demon heart had.

Just, what were the odds that just a mere two hours after meeting Gaston Jr., that she would meet Eddie, find out Eddie was more interested in another girl than he probably would be in her, and then find out that Gaston Jr. had found the other girl in question? This was destiny is what it was. The kind of serendipity people thought could only happen in movies, but the joke was on them, she basically lived in a movie. An awesome one, like Hogwarts for fairytales and myths, and the genre of the moment was clearly romantic comedy. A really cute one with actually relatable characters. This was all too cute for words, and...and maybe helping Eddie and Dusty come together might help her gather up the guts to let Gaston know who she was really interested in? She shivered at the mere thought of it. She hadn't gotten a crush on someone this fast ever, she was usually too nervous to acknowledge those feelings so quickly, but for gods' sake, they had a lightsaber battle and a total geek out moment together, and then that moment their eyes met, just...that was what these stories were made of, and she really hoped this was one of those cases where life WOULDN'T subvert the tropes.

It didn't take her too long to find the comic shop (didn't it just figure that they'd be meeting up here so soon after Gaston recommended it?), and once she was at the door, she shifted back into a human, the air clearly knocked out of her, because gods she didn't think she had ever flown so fast in her life. She couldn't help but check the store window, just to get a basic idea of how she looked...her hair seemed to be in place, and her cheeks were pink, but she wasn't sweating at all..good, good, she wouldn't look like a complete mess when they got here. She shot both Gaston and Eddie the same text: Ready when you are, and made her way into the store...which looked just as amazing as Gaston had said. Even if for some inexplicable reason, they wound up ditching her, she was pretty sure she could manage to soothe her soul from the blow in the Funko Pop section alone.

[Gaston Jr]

This was straight out of one of those stories that Lorelei wrote, or perhaps out of one of those Romance novels that mum left lying around and that he definitely did not pick up from time to time and read. He was giddy, that was the only way to describe it. All Gaston Jr was for his best friend to be happy and if he was happy with this Dusty who by all accounts was a sweet and very pleasant girl, then that was ok by him.

Still walking arm in arm he led them through the mall towards the comic shop. His phone buzzed and he checked it quickly, grinning when he saw who it was from. Turning back to Dusty he said, “not far now, it’s just up ahead.”

As they got closer he spotted Nancy through the window of the shop and started waving excitedly before pointing at Dusty and mouthing ‘Dusty’ just in case Nancy hadn’t put two and two together. As they got to the door he looked out for his friend…hopefully Eddie would be here any minute…

…he didn’t even consider that someone might get the wrong impression about him walking arm in arm with Dusty…

[Eddie Locksley]

Eddie had been taking a break at skating practice when he'd got Nancy's text, given his coach the fakest fake sickness anybody had ever tried, and run off before they could call him on his blatant lying (with a shouted promise he'd work twice as hard next week).
Of course, because he'd run off from skate practice and only stopped long enough to swap his skates for shoes (because of course he wasn't going to run in his skates, are you insane? Do you know how expensive they were?) leaving him half-sprinting across town still wearing his fairly form-fitting black practice pants and t-shirt as well as a pair of black gloves (the very gloves he'd offered Dusty, in fact).

He stopped in the doorway, breathless and half-exhausted after a gruelling skate practice followed by a run, and there she was... the girl, it was her, it was really her, Gaston had actually found her! Gaston was... standing with his arm through hers...

He cleared his throat awkwardly.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty was nervous. She was excited to see Eddie again. He had been so sweet the other day and he seemed so genuine and nice, unlike someone else she has thought she liked. But she was so nervous about meeting him again. She didn't know why. It would've be so bad. Not really. They would actually get a formal introduction this time which was good. And now she knew his name which was also good.

She saw the blonde girl in the store as they approached. Gaston seemed to know her, so that was probably a friend of his. She must have been the one he has been texting. That would make sense.

And then they were there. Dusty turned at the sound of a throat clearing behind them. And there was Eddie. She pulled her arm from Gaston's and smiled. "Eddie, hi. I'm Dusty. I forgot to tell you before. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave without telling you my name." She was suddenly feeling a little shy. "I'm glad you could meet me on such short notice."

[Nancy Panic]

The grin on Nancy's face broadened and then faded in a manner of seconds. It was almost laughable, though Nancy wouldn't agree. She got what Gaston was probably trying to do, be an utter gentleman...but to someone else, it would look like he was putting the moves on Dusty...someone like Eddie. Who had just arrived.

Oh nononononooooo, a misunderstanding could ruin this whole thing!

She all but slammed the door open and shot a huge, not-at-all-anxious grin at them. "Hey, I'm glad we could make this happen! Ain't it crazy that we all happened to run into people that could make it happen?? What are the odds??"

...of course then the thought occurred that she might've ruined the intro as she realized that Dusty was turning to Eddie and properly introducing herself...

Shit.

Damage control was now her goal as she backed away, trying to keep her smile on. "Yooou know what, I'm just gonna leave you guys alone." Annnnd she bumped into the door. One awkward fumbling to open it later..."I think that'd be best. I'm sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt." And she darted back in, just about wanting to die.