The Perfect Gift [Open]

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You'd think that living near the Meditteranean, where it almost never snowed, would have meant that Mia loathed this time of year. You wouldn't have been more wrong, however; Mia had fallen in love with this winter weather the minute she had decided to give skiing a try her first year here. Furthermore, she absolutely adored the Christmas season. I mean, don't get her wrong, she still had a soft spot Lenaia, and a part of her wanted to figure out some way to celebrate it come January (although seeing as it was such a community based thing, and she was fairly certain no one was planning any theatre competitions for that month, she wasn't sure how that'd be possible), but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy this, right? It was just so beautiful, all of the lights and the colors, then there was the cozy feeling you got next to the fire with some hot chocolate...

All right, fine. Yes, she was in love with a holiday that would have given her father a heart attack, and she was finding it very difficult to care all that much if it was "wrong". Of course she still worshipped her own gods, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy this.

Besides, it seemed just as wrong to leave her loved ones out of the exchange of gifts just because of her own beliefs, especially those who did believe it. With that in mind, she had thought that a little shopping would be good for her...and perhaps she could get something for Helena too. She felt so terrible now that she knew the truth, and she had to get her something extra special to apologize for being the world's most horrible friend.

But what did you give someone who meant the world to you, but you had wronged? Least of all something who would probably insist that she didn't need the sort of gift that Mia knew that she deserved? She let out a sigh and wandered around one of the shops. There were so many beautiful things here, but what would be perfect for her dearest friend?

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Tulio still hated the winter. No matter how long he stayed at this school, no matter how many winters (whether he remembered them or not), Tulio still hated the cold and the snow and the cold and the short daylight hours, and did he mention the cold? He was used to the three S’s: Sun, Sand and Surf.

And now, Snow didn’t count. The ‘n’ instead of a vowel made it invalid.

So why did he decide to venture out of the warm skiing lodge? He should be curled up by a roaring fire with a steaming cup of cocoa, but no, instead he was bundled up in a thick coat, mittens, and a scarf pulled up so high and a toque so low that only his eyes were visible, and why? Because he had forgotten to buy his best friend a present. Sure, he could have made up some excuse, but then he would have to deal with the disappointed puppy dog look that Miguel had perfected so well and that Tulio had never managed to grow immune to.

Rushing into the nearest store, Tulio let out a long “ahhhhhh,” through his scarf as the blast of heat hit him.

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Was it sad that her first instinct was to hide whenever she heard the door open? Apparently she was still getting used to the idea that she could go out in public without having to worry about people falling all over her, even though she was very glad that was done. It was damn near impossible to have an intelligent conversation with people that way. Thankfully, it didn't take her very long to come to her senses and then come out from behind the shelf of ornaments, which allowed her to catch sight of a very familiar face.

The last time she had seen him, she had calmly, in spite of her tearstained face, that she couldn't be with him, not when he was under an influence that was beyond the sort of passion that she, deep down, had wished was the case. No one had kissed her like that since Lysander, after all, at least not at the time, and besides her ex, she would be a rotten liar if she didn't admit that she found him attractive. What girl didn't want to feel so worshipped by someone like him?

Well...apparently she hadn't. Perhaps that spell had made her stupid as well.

Without thinking, she said his name, and her tone was...hard to name, really. Sure, there was enthusiasm there, maybe a hint of longing...but it was mostly surprise, she supposed. Well, she had called attention to herself, and now had probably begun a rather awkward interaction. Yay. She might as well throw in a little wave to top it all off, right? Maybe she could soften the blow of the awkwardness...somehow.

"Hi...long time no see?"

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Pushing the scarf down under his chin, Tulio pulled the hat off his head causing unruly black curls to stick off in every direction. Heat! Wonderful, wonderful heat! He only hoped he’d popped into a decent store because even if all it sold was women’s lingerie, Miguel was getting something from here. No way was Tulio stepping outside again until he was ready to go straight back to the lodge.

Tucking his toque under one arm, he tried to unsuccessfully tug the gloves off his hands, but they were so bulky he couldn’t get ahold of one to pull it off. Giving up, he grabbed the end of the middle finger of one between his front teeth and was just giving it a good tug when he heard someone call his name. Turning his head, hand in glove still hanging from his mouth, his blue eyes widened when he saw who was standing there. He may have even let out a little squeak, but he wouldn’t admit to it.

“Yeah...hi...” he said in reply, or that was what he tried to say, but the glove muffled it so it sounded more like incoherent mumbling. Taking a step back from her Hermia he felt his heart speed up. After their encounter last time, he was a bit afraid of her. Clearly she had used her Goddess powers to put a spell on him and he really didn’t want a repeat of that.

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For a moment, Hermia had thought that maybe, just maybe, this didn't have to be so bad. Maybe they'd have a good laugh about that time in the movie theatre and they could walk away as unlikely friends. Unfortunately, when she saw his facial expression and how he tried to step away from her, she realized that this was worse than she thought. She could understand looking down at his feet or something, but why would he...

...unless he thought that all of that was her fault, somehow. Oh dear, that wasn't going to do at all! She had to set the record straight.

Wary, she stepped forward, noticing how much trouble he was having. "Hey, you need help with that?" she asked, hoping he wouldn't decide to run away screaming. After all, she was doing everything to not look threatening...not that she looked that threatening in the first place. She was so tiny! The idea of anyone being scared of her was almost laughable, but mostly frustrating, especially since if she was right, it was all because of a spell that was totally beyond her control, and done with, for that matter.

"Those things are really hard to deal with, I know...never needed them back in Greece." And maybe throw in a smile that was sweet, but not dazzling. Gods, never dazzling, please.

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When she stepped toward him, Tulio took another step back but he had nowhere further to go as he bumped into the shelf behind him. She had him cornered! She was closing in! WHAT WAS HE GOING TO DO?

Eyes darting from side to side, he looked for an escape. he couldn’t go back the way he came because the entryway to the store was small and, having stepped off to the side to remove his winter gear, there was now a rather obstructive corner between him and the door now. In the other direction he would be going further into the store, like those stupid girls in horror movies who ran up the stairs to escape the crazy killer and, directly in front of him was her. Okay, so she wasn’t as bad as a crazy killer, but she had some power over him that he didn’t like. So far he wasn’t feeling it, but then again he hadn’t the first time they’d met either. What had been different the second time?

“It’s alright, I got it!” Tulio protested quickly. As if to make his point he bit harder into the glove and yanked his head back quickly. The glove, successfully, pulled off, but he also succeeded in smashing the back of his head into the shelf behind him. “Ow....”

The pain seemed to jog his memory, though, to the night in the theatre. There had been pain then, too, when she had fallen on him and they’d both hit the floor. That was it! The touching! That had to be the difference! To make him all loopy, she just had to touch him!

He had all of one second to feel triumphant at figuring out the mystery before promptly freaking out again.

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Oh, this was even worse than she had originally thought and, well...could you blame her for trying to decide if she should be offended or not? Still, when his desperate attempts to keep her from helping him ended in him hurting himself, she decided that she wouldn't dwell on it. Wincing sympathetically, she made a decision and that was that she desperately needed to give him the explanation he deserved and...well, she wasn't sure of what would happen afterwards, but it had to be better than him being on the verge of treating her like she would bite him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, although she supposed that was a silly question all together. If that was okay, she really didn't want to know what Tulio's idea of horrified was.

Letting out a sigh, she decided that she should just stop beating about the bush. "Look, about that time in the movie theatre...now do you see what I meant by this really wasn't you? I don't know how it happened, but for some reason, everyone was falling in love with me at first sight...thankfully that seems to be over."

You know, it didn't sound nearly as insane until she had to explain it to someone. Then again, this was the guy who knew that she was born thousands of years ago...so maybe there was hope?

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Was he okay? That was a silly question all together. He was corned in some unknown shop by an ancient goddess with crazy powers, and now his head was hurting on top of it. And it was so hot in here with all the layers he was wearing that he was starting to sweat. Oh yes, he was just freaking fine!

Oh great, now she wanted to talk about that humiliating experience. What was it with him humiliating himself in public places over girls? Well, at least this last time he hadn’t burst into song, and he hadn’t ended up in jail at the end of it, so that was an improvement, but then the damn Slap had broadcasted the details so everyone knew about it, not just those that were there, so points deducted again.

Throughout Hermia’s explanation, Tulio just continued to stare at her. Now did he see? No, no he did not. What was he supposed to see? At least she was admitting it was a love spell, even if she was denying being the one who cast it.

“Ha! I knew it!” he burst out suddenly, pointing a finger at her. Realising that was putting a part of him in closer proximity to her, and therefore risking infection again, he quickly retracted it with a squeak. “I knew it was a love spell! I’m not normally so...” gallant? “so...” romantic? “so... Miguel-like. Declarations and idiocy are more his territory.”

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Look, Hermia wasn't asking for them to be totally okay right this second, but good gods, did he have to act like it was some great triumph that he figured out something was amiss when he fell in and out of love with her in the span of a half an hour, quite possibly leaving the experience entirely disoriented? Yes, well done Tulio, you're very smart for figuring that out, she thought, but she would never say it out loud. There was no need to get testy about this. It wasn't like the rotten situation was his fault. It wasn't like it was his fault that she wished that she had gotten to kiss him under better circumstances and really wished she didn't wish that. It just made this whole situation even more complicated, because, admittedly, she wasn't sure if she'd be bothering to explain such an embarrassing and heartwrenching moment to him if she hadn't been struggling with liking him for real.

"Yes, it was a spell and unfortunately you weren't the only one. My friend Bartok was the same way...look, I'm dead serious. It wasn't my intention for you to be acting Miguel-like...wait, wasn't that the friend who up and abandoned you? He came back?" Funny, Helena had turned up as well...she wondered if it was another one of those strange things that Tintagel seemed to dish out. Maybe there was some sort of "old friend return" magic to match up with her constant "fuck with love" magic.

Wait, that wasn't important right now. She had how Tulio saw her to think about here! "Anyway, I don't even know how it happened. I certainly didn't ask for it and I'm sorry that it happened." Except for the part where you kissed me. And admittedly I felt some vindication when you said you'd attack Lysander for me...but that doesn't count now that I know that it wasn't his fault and....uggggh, shut up brain. "I really hope we can be friends still..." Liar...what did I say about shutting up??

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The fact that this love spell affected more people than just him only seemed to strengthen Tulio’s belief that clearly it was all Hermia’s fault, and to even touch her again would be inviting disaster. Nothing good ever came from love, because it always inevitably ended, and usually badly. Women were either heartless little beasts that flirted and seduced and led men on before just running off and leaving them, or clingy things that wanted to be with them every minute and barely gave them chance to breathe. Tulio was sure he’d been in both of these relationship since coming to this blasted place, but one of them he didn’t even remember so he just assumed it was the latter. Bottom line: love was bad news; it was much better to just fool around, no strings attached.

Fortunately for Hermia, though, she managed to throw in that comment about Miguel abandoning him, so for a moment Tulio forgot the current predicament.

“Yes, he came back,” he replied with a sniff, tilting his nose up slightly. “Apparently he left me a note when he left that I never got explaining everything, so either he’s an idiot and left it in a stupid place, or he’s a liar and didn’t leave one at all. Either one is entirely plausible.”

It was true. Miguel may be his best friend, but he wasn’t the shiniest coin in the treasure chest. He was also a conman, though, but while Tulio had seen him lie to many a person, rarely was he the recipient... unless it was about girls.

Unfortunately for Hermia she decided it wasn’t important and switched the topic back to the love spell. Tulio was instantly on guard again.

“Right, well,” he said, sidestepping along the shelf slightly. “I don’t do well with female friends.”

Sad, but true. Chel had never really been a friend, she had been more interested in getting under his skin and he had been more interested in getting into her... well, anyway, and then there had been Audrey, who he had apparently dated, and who had tried to be a friend to him after finding out about the amnesia, but who he had used when he’d been upset about Chel. Bad track record.

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In spite of her mission, Mia thought it was only fair to listen to Tulio's bit about Miguel properly and she couldn't help but frown. Then again, the idea of a lost note wasn't the most outlandish idea, especially around this place. "Well, I hope you two have made up, at least...my own friend reappeared and..." She sighed a little. "It's actually why I'm here. I completely misjudged her...everything that happened back at home wasn't her fault at all and I was so awful to her that..." She then sighed. He probably wasn't interested in all of that anyway and...well. His statement about female friends was definitely further proof that he wouldn't want to hear about this...what a thing to say, though.

"Well, there's certainly more to me than just being female..." she muttered, but then decided to not go on her soap box. That seemed to turn people off, and that was the precise opposite of what she wanted to do here. And...no, it wasn't just because he was attractive. That would be wrong.

"Look, that time we met at the cafe...we seemed to get along well enough there. I get that things are awkward, but I'm serious when I say that I'm not going to pursue you or anything. I'm not even asking for best friends here. I just don't think it makes sense to just avoid each other entirely over an isolated incident."

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Hermia was right about one thing: Tulio wasn’t interested in her little story at all. Tulio didn’t care about girl problems; in fact he rarely cared about anyone’s problems but his own. Sometimes he cared about Miguel’s problems, but more often than not Miguel was his problem so then it was right back to caring about his own, which we already covered, so see above. To be fair, though, it wasn’t entirely about him being selfish: he just honestly thought that girl’s fought over silly things.

Sure, there was more to Hermia than the fact that she was a female... she was also a goddess... a real one. Tulio had only played at being a God, but she was the real deal with eternal life and powers and everything. He had gotten a small taste of what she could do, so maybe, just maybe, he should stop and think about this for a moment. Right now she was a Goddess that seemed to like him and want to be his ‘friend’, but if he refused she could just as easily become a vengeful Goddess who would think nothing of making sure that he never became ‘friendly’ with anyone else ever again.

This thought gave Tulio pause.

Perhaps he should rethink his tactics here, and by ‘rethink’ of course he meant ‘think at all’ and by ‘tactics’ perhaps ‘do anything other than run’ was a good plan. So after a moment’s pause Tulio was suddenly gracing Hermia with his most charming, easy going grin.

“Of course!” he exclaimed. Time to play up the gentleman and save his skin here. “Please excuse me, but... that wasn’t the first time I’ve been a victim of magic here. So I get a little...” Crazy? Freaked out? Terrified? “Upset.”

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Of course Hermia wanted this to work. Why on earth would she bother at all if she didn't want to be successful in persuading Tulio that they could still be friends? With that being said...it was peculiar, how quickly he went from trying to avoid her to putting on that...really handsome smile and being formal, almost charming even...oh what was she saying? Of course he was charming. That was potentially problematic, to say the least, but she would simply have to worry about that later. The point was, she couldn't help but think that even though she had brought up a few valid points that it wasn't the cause of his sudden change of heart.

All the same, what if she were wrong? There was no way she was going to take that risk and call him out for being a liar when she wasn't even sure if that was the case. And yes, she realized that she was probably overreacting, but...really, would it be so bad, having him as a friend at least?

Somewhere in her mind, she was sure there was an inner voice that was burying her face in her hands, wondering why she even bothered telling Hermia to just forget about boys.

So she smiled and nodded. "Yes, I could understand that...truthfully, it wasn't the first time I was either." She probably would have gone into some more details under different circumstances, but they were on delicate ground enough as it was, really. "Anyway, I'm so glad. You just seem like a cool guy, you know?" That wasn't too obvious, right? Her voice was casual enough with that statement that no one could interpret that as...oh good gods! She had forgotten how self conscious having a crush could make you!

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A cool guy. Now that he could believe. Well, she seemed to buy his whole story, which she should since it was the truth, although not really the whole truth. But whatever it was she bought it and was being friendly so all he had to do was continue to be friendly, but not too friendly because if she touched him again... no, he was so not letting that happen.

“Well good. And now that all that is settled...” Could he make up an excuse to leave now? Was it too soon? Maybe... maybe he could use this newfound ‘friendship’ to his advantage and kill two birds with one stone here. He still needed a gift for Miguel, and he wanted to make sure the Goddess didn’t think he was slighting her by making a break for it, so... “Just how good are you at picking out gifts?”

Women were always better at that thing than men... unless it came to picking out things for women. Tulio was excellent at that, especially if they were shiny things.

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Oh dear...he wasn't getting tired of her already, was he? She could almost see him trying to make a break for it in his eyes...or was that just her being self conscious again? It was then that it occurred to Hermia that she was absolutely horrid at reading people at all. Her emotions muddled everything, that was probably it. She was often so proud of how passionate she was, but here it was possibly deterring her abilities to figure out just what was going on inside of Tulio's head. Ironically, how strong her feelings were desperately wanted to know what was going on inside his head.

But then he asked her something that would actually prolong their time together and her anxiety settled. 'Anxiety', eh? My gods, pull yourself together! Wouldn't Aphrodite be ashamed of you? That much was true. It wasn't every day that you were visited by one of the gods (...well, all right, perhaps it WAS a regular occurrence at this school, but that was irrelevant, seeing as for her, at least, she had only met Hermes for...well, ahem, and then Aphrodite getting her out of her funk), and you damn well didn't make a fool of yourself in their area afterwards.

Anyway, gifts! Right, of course, that was probably why Tulio was here too. She smiled. "I suppose I know a thing or two. I'll have to know more about who you're getting a gift for, but I'm sure I can help." If her expression was any indication, she was perfectly eager to help. Which she was. She really hoped Tulio appreciated that...if she could slap herself, she would.