My, What Big Eyes You Have (Wolf)

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This just wasn’t fair. All she had done was attempt to give some poor, unfortunate soul some fashion advice and now she was stuck in this small, stuffy room with some creepy quiet guy, and Lottie just didn’t do quiet well. A proper gentleman would introduce himself, and as he hadn’t, and taking in his choice of clothing and just general... air, she was pretty sure he wasn’t a prince. Of course she couldn’t be that lucky, could she?

Looking down at her nails, Lottie sighed loudly. How wonderful would that have been? Her own private audience with a prince, with nowhere to go and nothing but time. But no, she had to get this guy who was barely paying her even a lick of attention. That was not something she was used to, nor did she like it one bit. Well, if he wasn’t going to talk to her then fine! She wouldn’t talk to him either!

She looked at her nails again. She checked the contents of her purse. She fixed her make-up in her little compact. She was practically bouncing in her seat she was so fidgety.

“So why are you here?” she finally broke down and asked. Just because she was being punished and he was rude did not mean she should be absolutely tortured.

[talbot]

Lawrence had a bit of a headache. He had been checking out the school for some time now and honestly wasn’t sure what he thought of it. Actually on many levels he was sure what he thought about it, but right now he was just sure that he needed to be alone.

Only that didn’t seem possible here. No matter where he went there were people and more people and more people. It raked at his nerves and set him extremely on edge. His normally dour demeanor was downright volatile right now. He found an out of the way place that only had one person in it, and set himself down to think about his current…predicament.

Trapped. That was how he felt. A wild sensation welled up in him and he had a vision of chewing his own arm off…not that it would do him any good. Cursing himself for being such a fool, Lawrence slipped further into a dark pit of emotional despair.

So self-involved was he, that he didn’t immediately realize someone was speaking to him.

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Looking over at the man, Lottie waited patiently for him to respond... for all of five seconds. Then she waited impatiently. That didn’t last long either. Not only did he not acknowledge that she had spoken to him, but he didn’t even look at her. He was completely ignoring her, acting like she didn’t even exist!

And Lottie didn’t take kindly to being ignored.

“Excuse me,” she said, very pointedly this time. Turning in her chair to face him, she gave him a look that was none too impressed. “When someone speaks to you, the polite thing ta do is to answer them back.”

Speaking of polite, she was really quite proud of herself for how polite she was being right now. She could have said something really biting but she was taking the high road. It would just make him look that much worse for how he was treating her... not that there was anyone else here to see it, but that was hardly the point!

[talbot]

Lawrence blinked a couple of times and looked up. The blonde that was sitting across from him was all in a huff about something, and apparently he was to blame. This was one of the main reasons that he had never bothered seeking out romantic interests in the past. Well, that and the fact that his heart was a shriveled piece of burnt coal. But from what he had observed, this was pretty much par for the course.

He blinked again and leveled a darkly serious look at her.

"Did you say something?"

Of course she had. He knew she had. A host of responses flitted through his mind, and he wondered if right now he should be making any more enemies, no matter how harmless they appeared. He was after all, effectively muzzled for the time being.

"I apologize," he said sincerely. "I was just sitting here wondering what I could possibly say to someone as lovely as you." He bowed his eyes in apology. "But words seem so inadequate sometimes." His eyes found hers again. "Do you ever feel that way?"

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Did she say something? Did she say something? Why, Lottie was sure she had never been so insulted in all her life! Well, at least for the past three months, anyway. Well if he wasn’t the most arrogant, self absorbed, rude, conceited...

...wait, what did he say?

Lottie had been getting herself worked up into a right frenzy, ready to unleash her fury on this horrible man when he suddenly apologized and then said possibly the sweetest, most romantic thing she had ever heard. Holding a hand to her heart, her anger instantly vanished. It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard lines before, but most of them sounded so insincere, and the ones that sounded sincere were usually pimply faced little boys that wouldn’t know real romance if it bit them on their pointy little noses.

This boy didn’t seem to fit in either of those categories.

“I don’t know,” Lottie replied with a bright smile. “It sure takes a lot to strike me speechless, but you keep throwing things like that at me and ya just might manage it.”

First impressions weren’t always true, after all, and a proper lady should always give second chances.

[talbot]

Lawrence held his hands up in surrender. “True, but I have offended a beautiful lady and for that I should be shackled and thrown to the wolves.” His smile danced in his eyes but scarcely budged his lips. It was apparent that with this one, flattery would get him everywhere…and for the time being Lawrence put his current misery out of his mind.

Because misery looooved company. Yes it did.

“But if, however,” he said as he leaned in closer to her, “you could find it in your heart to forgive such a wretch as I…” He trailed off, lowering his head ever so slightly but not breaking eye contact. “I vow on everything I hold sacred that I will make it my new life goal to make it up to you.”

That was easy enough. He didn’t hold anything sacred.

Lawrence smiled.

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Lord in heaven, once this boy got talking why he sure knew how to talk! When he leaned in closer to her, Lottie unconsciously mimicked the action, her eyes wide and fixed on his, clearly hanging on every word he was saying.

Whew, boy, the impossible was achieved. By the time he was finished, Lottie was speechless. It was like something from a fairytale, or a romance novel. She had never even heard such beautiful words in a song before! She had certainly never heard such a speech before directed in... her direction. She was practically melting into a Lottie shaped puddle under his gaze.

“Golly,” she breathed, clasping her hands together and batting her eyelashes. “How can a girl say no ta that? Of course I forgive ya, sugah... though I wouldn’t say no to a little makin’ up either...”

My, oh my.

[talbot]

Perfect.

The little girl had her heart going pitter patter and Lawrence could hear it taking off at a full gallop as she mulled over his words with a gaping mouth. She was genuinely flustered, and he had a little insight into the heart of this one. She was genuine-through and through. From the misplaced and self-absorbed frustration at not being noticed to the swooning creature that stood before him now, there was no pretention. Whether this was a refreshing virtue of a corrupted humanity or something that set her apart as weak and easy prey for the wolves was a matter of opinion. Lawrence knew how he felt about it.

His instincts told him that it would be better to only take this so far for now. A seed took time and nurturing to sprout and grow, and whether it was love, infatuation or sheer carnal lust it was never planted and harvested in the same moment. Not for females anyway.

She was far more useful to him as a swoon dumbstruck girl than anything else, no matter how long it had been since he’d done any kind of harvesting. There were bigger things at stake here than Lawrence’s carnal needs.

“Thank the gods you are as gracious as you are radiant,” he said softly and grabbed her hand gently but firmly. Her young skin was soft as he pressed his lips against the back of her hand. “My name is Lawrence Talbot,” he said without letting go of her hand. “Tell me who I have the pleasure of speaking to. I would love to know more about you, my dear.”

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Her heart was certainly going pitter patter, and when he softly kissed her hand she just barely kept herself from sighing, but when he introduced himself the warning bells started to go off in Lottie’s head. The introduction had compliments, and a gentlemanly kiss, and genuine interest in her but it was missing one very important thing: a title. Lawrence Talbot, not Prince Lawrence Talbot.

Lottie immediately felt herself cooling down.

See, she had made that mistake once, let herself get all twitterpated over Caz and convincing herself he was a prince only to end up humiliated when it turned out he wasn’t, and when her believe had been absolutely no fault of his. Luckily he had been about the sweetest, most forgiving man alive and they had managed to walk out of that awkward situation as friends, but it had taken a little extra work to get her goals back in her sights after that. She was going to be a princess; she was not going to give up on that dream just because a nice, handsome boy showed her some attention.

A little flirting never hurt though, right?

“Charlotte LaBouff,” she replied, her smile remaining bright if not a bit less dazed. “It’s a pleasure, Mr. Talbot.”

[talbot]

He could hear it, the way her breath caught in her throat when he kissed the back of her hand and introduced himself to her. It was perfect, and he was about to back down entirely from there when the strangest thing happened. It was as if a switch was thrown in her heart...or more accurately it was as if someone opened the door in a toasty room and frigid winter air started to seep in. Eyes that were swimming with warmth and adoration suddenly cleared just a little, and Lawrence knew that the spell he'd been weaving over the young lady's heart was slipping.

His clever mind began to run through what had happened, and he narrowed it down to the moment that he had introduced himself to her. Something about it was more than unsatisfactory to her. Something about the way he introduced himself had put her off.

It took a moment for it to dawn on him, but once his mind latched on to the possibility that she considered him beneath her station he began to put it all together. The young lady was holding out for someone special...and what little princess types like her usually were waiting for was more than a knight in shining armor...

"Well," he said with a graceful finger up to his lips to shush her. "I have need for great secrecy." He looked around and pulled her closer for an intimate secret. "But I feel that I can trust you." His face was close to hers, and he held her hands gently. "I can. Trust you. Can I not?" His eyes held hers and he held a sincere breath while he waited for her reply.

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Letting out a startled yelp when Lawrence suddenly pulled her closer, Lottie almost pulled her hands away in an indignant way but was stopped by his words. In many ways, she was a typical girl. She loved fairytales and romance, fashion and shopping, and boy did she love hearing gossip and secrets. She couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, but she did so love hearing them. So while she wanted to pull away and give him a piece of her mind for daring to manhandle her in any fashion, she instead leaned in, ready to greedily take in any secret he wanted to tell.

“Of course, sugah! I’m about as trustworthy as they come,” she said, sounding completely genuine, which she actually was. For while Lottie was terrible at keeping secrets, she hardly realised this fact. Every time she would hear one she would swear not to tell, but then she just wouldn’t be able to contain herself and sometime it would just slip out. She would feel horrible about it (at least partly) and swear it would never happen again... but it always did.