Young and Menace (Costin)

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden was wandering around the market for no better reason than to not be in the cottage. She may have been avoid Mordred a bit. Also the fact that she sort of liked the snow had nothing to do with it. Nothing. Especially not since Hinrik had said he liked it too. In fact she'd been trying really really hard not to focus on that fact. Every time she noticed it causally falling to the earth she though about how he'd described it as magical and her heart ached. Her brain burned with longing and frustration over it. She'd thought hearing that it was snowing where he was would make her feel like they were weirdly connected by the weather. Why she thought that would bring her any comfort she wasn't sure. God damnnit, the whole point of taking this walk was to not think about these exact things.

Aiden rolled her eyes at herself and looked up just int time to run straight into someone. Aiden had a bad habit of staring at the ground when she thought. This wasn't very conducive to walking. Also her frustration had her walking at a rather rapid pace and there was ice and snow everywhere. Long story short, Aiden not only ran into this person, but found she couldn't watch her balance after doing so. She latched onto a piece of his clothing as a reflex and she dragged them both to the ground.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin was definitely not shopping for Christmas presents, because Christmas was a silly holiday, and it wasn't as if he'd grown up celebrating it and had a lot of sentimental memories based around it. He was also definitely not looking for a gift specifically for one person, and that person definitely wasn't Gwyn Locksley. But that wasn't to say that if something stood out to him in these little shops and looked like it might be something Gwyn would enjoy, he wouldn't pick it up...you know, just in case she did something silly like try to give him a gift. It was never good to be empty-handed when someone gave you a gift, and it was always good to be prepared.

As it turned out, something had jumped out at him as he walked past a little jewelry shop - it was a little pendant, shaped like a sword, with a rectangular cut green stone set into the blade, suspended on a delicate silver chain. The second he saw it in the window, he imagined it around her neck, and once he had purchased it, he tucked it away carefully into one of the inner pockets of his coat and headed back out into the snow.

Several things happened then, all at once. Someone moved right at him, then stopped, then slipped, grabbed hold of his coat, and hauled them both to the ground. Costin's first reaction was help, someone is attacking me but as he stared up at the sky, catching his breath, he realized it had probably been an accident. It was the holiday season; he should be magnanimous about this, shouldn't he? Taking a deep breath, Costin tried to swallow down the rage that had been his initial reaction, and tried to sit up.

Except someone was still on top of him, and he couldn't quite...oh, no. The second he realized who it was that had knocked him down, all of the anger he had just suppressed came welling right back up and he summoned up all of his strength to push her off of him as quickly as he could.

"What the hell are you doing?" he spat, vigorously dusting snow off of his coat and trousers. "Did you ever consider watching where you were walking, or are you truly that incapable of thinking of anyone other than yourself?"

[Aiden Mumble]

To be perfectly honest, Costin had broken most of her fall and saved her from several more bruises. However, the emotional trauma she'd be carrying around after realizing she was laying on top of Costin really made things even in her eyes. They seemed to who exactly they were sharing personal space with at the same time and she struggled to move off him just as anxiously as he'd pushed her. She personally felt the push was far harder than it needed to be. She didn't weigh all that much, he was obviously overreacting. She glared at him, but said nothing. She didn't want to give him any reason to believe she wished to remain on top of him anymore than he did. He already had convinced himself she was in love with him once before, after all.

With the assistance of his shove, she fell to one side and sat up beside him. She rolled her eyes at the ground as she listened to him complain and slowly rose to her feet. She didn't bother to dust off the snow. Aiden was far less concerned about her clothing and, well, her general well being.

"Definitely the latter" Aiden grumbled, sarcastically. "What are you even doing out of your cave, Costin?" She said, matching his vile tone.