"Though I Never Laid a Hand on You"

Adrienne wasn't sure where else to go. In truth, she should have known by then which place would be the best if she needed to find him. But summer was coming on strong and then she would be entirely lost. Maybe she should have just written him back. She probably would have done so if she had received it as a different or "better" time, but instead she had gone through the floo at the Daily Prophet and made her way to his office.

The letter was rolled up in her hand, and although her foot tapped against the floor as well, she set the hand holding that letter to tapping against the wall as she stood outside his door. If he so much as passed by, he would have to notice her - particularly after a letter such as the one her fingers gripped so tightly.

Was her face red? She felt it must have been after a couple of students walked by, glancing her way. It was irrational to think that they could possibly know why she was there, what she had received, or the fact that she didn't have a clue what she would do or say when she saw him. Yet the fear was there, and she felt sure that she must have looked unbelievably awkward.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she crossed her hands over her chest and tried unsuccessfully to stop fidgeting.

Selwyn completely hated his office.  It was down in the dungeons, where there was no proper light and he seemed always to be putting off learning the charm that would allow him to have a proper window to the outside.  However, that didn't prevent him sometimes having to visit it.

He hadn't expected anyone else to be visiting it at the same time, though.

"Oh," he said, mind completely blanking for a moment as he saw who was waiting.

"Hi."

And while Selwyn couldn't help the smile that lit up his face at the sight of her, that sight included the parchment she was gripping.

At the time, he hadn't thought much about it, but now he wondered whether he'd done something wrong.

His greeting was about at the level she had expected it to be. Confused, probably, though if his words were any indication, it was unlikely that he would be too fussed about her appearance. She had waited until he'd spoken to set her bag down on one of the chairs, though the letter was still clutched in her grasp.

She probably should have planned something to say - something worth saying upon the reception of something like this. But he surely knew this was undiscovered territory as far as Adrienne was concerned. She was pretty sure that she had made that much quite obvious.

"Hi," she replied quietly. A part of her had thought she would shout at him for... she wasn't sure what. That it showed up while she was at work? That he said he missed her but she hadn't gone all that far?

It wasn't either of those things, she realized, though the first definitely had thrown her off. That and the fact that a certain person that she had essentially just spoken to for the first time had been sitting in her office at the exact, awkward moment.

"So I just read this. Well, not just. Maybe twenty minutes ago. In front of Shylock, actually, who was in my office telling me to trust in whatever is happening and I was agreeing and then I got this." She held up the letter that time, specifying needlessly.

"I don't-... I mean, I didn't know how to write back," she explained, crossing over to stand in front of his desk. Dropping the parchment down, she turned to face him, bouncing a bit on her toes and letting out an anxious sigh. "I've never had anyone say things like that to me. And I don't know how to convince myself to say something similar in return. But I want this to work. I just need to get used to it. I mean, ...I care about you, a lot. I hope you know that. I'll... I'll work on being less shit at telling you so."

Upon seeing Addie, Selwyn had expected her to shout at him. Sometimes it felt as though whatever he did was just not quite right.  What was more frustrating was how close he could get to making her happy. So when she didn't shout, it only served to make him more confused.  

He let her speak.  Selwyn had figured out by now that interrupting Addie while she was in the middle of a thought could derail her entirely; but when she was done, he still didn't know where to begin.

Apart from the fact that she'd taken his advice about speaking to Shylock (which Selwyn was very curious about, but didn't think this was the time to satisfy his curiosity), what struck him most was the way she called what he'd written "things like that".  Not lovely, romantic, or even gross or weird, just "like that".  Like she wanted to distance herself from the content of the letter.

It didn't precisely upset him.  Perhaps receiving it in front of Shylock... well, that would have been a shock.  In truth, Selwyn had assumed that Adrienne would wait until she got home before even opening the thing.

He crossed the room as well, to sit in the other chair on this side of the desk. He wanted to give her some space, but not too much space.

"You wouldn't have to write something similar back," he said. "You could write that you appreciated the sentiment of my letter."

"Not that you need to," he went on, "since you're here now, telling me yourself. I only wrote it down because I thought my feelings were so complicated they couldn't possibly make sense unless they were on paper. And I was maybe trying to seduce you a little bit."

Selwyn smiled slyly at his own cunning.

"Did you appreciate the sentiment of my letter?"

He didn't say anything at first, which made her roll her lips together nervously, looking at her feet as he moved over to the empty chair. Empty no more, though. When he did speak, she looked up, eyes wide in a curiously hopeful sort of way. Maybe she hadn't been too bad at getting her point across.

She hadn't really thought about it until the time they had - well, she had - gotten drunk and she had embarrassed herself by thinking too much. But a piece of her wondered what would have been different if she had met someone to break her cycle of innocence years before. Maybe then she would've had her sassy responses down rather than trying to come up with them on the spot.

Adrienne had the distinct feeling that she looked rather like a first year who had been asked a question though they hadn't done the reading. Not terrified, precisely, so maybe more like a second or third year. But concerned that she was about to mess something up if she said the wrong thing.

Wishing she had gum or something to chew on besides the inside of her lower lip, Adrienne toyed with the fingers of her left hand as he went on, only to crack a smile and let out a quiet laugh at his admission. "I think I got that part," she told him, fighting a proper smile and feeling the way her eyes crinkled a bit in protest.

Visibly considering that question, and doing so for far too long, according to him no doubt. When she spoke, she did so with a nonchalant shrug. "No," she said. "If I did, though, it would sort of go against the request in your letter, so I can't tell you."

The tension in the room seemed to build, until finally Addie answered and Selwyn could feel that this moment, when she played up to his suggestion, was the one he'd think back to as when he knew how she felt. Perhaps because it was more dramatic than the simple "I care about you" before, or maybe because of what they said about actions speaking louder than words.

"God, I love it when you get all rules lawyer on me," he said. "We'll have to think up some more so you can do it more often."

"Bu-ut, you can surely tell me what you didn't like, can't you?" he suggested. "I mean, I wouldn't want to continue sending awful letters, so really, it's in your own interest to educate me."

Although her cheeks flamed a bright red, a quiet laugh escaped. "It's one of my special skills," she claimed, silently acknowledging that she wasn't sure he would always appreciate it. One day it could turn into the thing that ticked him off more than anything else she did, so she made a mental note to keep that in mind just in case.

"Well," she considered, taking a little step towards him and clasping her hands behind her back. It took her a few moments, as she had trouble picking something to tell him. But that in itself was shocking for her, wasn't it? "Receiving a letter with that sort of content while at work was a bit strange, I suppose. A bit dangerous, potentially," she added, tilting her head to the side as though she wasn't entirely sure that it was a bad thing. It was nearly a shrug, really.

At that, she moved forward again, stopping when she found herself next to his leg. Adrienne sat herself down on the arm of his chair, her feet tapping the outside of the chair as she half faced him. "I'm glad that you're a sap," she decided, smiling down at him a bit cheekily.

Selwyn bit his lip when Addie stepped closer. He wondered whether she was doing the good girl act for him, or whether she really was as unruffled as she seemed. He certainly wasn't.

"Oh?" he asked. "How dangerous? Dangerous in what way?"

But she was stepping toward him again, right next to him now, and Selwyn had to dig his nails into his palm to keep himself from reaching out. This was his dilemma.

Instead, he stilled, concentrating on breathing deep and enjoying the thrumming in his veins. Was that the adrenalin coursing through him? He didn't know.

He turned his head just far enough to look up at Addie.

"I'm glad I am too, else you wouldn't be here."

And he wouldn't be getting off on her proximity. There was probably something wrong about this.

"Oh, very," she decided quickly, her tone light despite the lift of her eyebrows that accompanied her words. "But in a good way, a bit." She smirked properly, then, actually rather pleased with herself.

Adrienne wasn't sure if it had something to do with his being part Veela, or if it was just the temperature that seemed to be infiltrating his office. But either way, she felt funny in a way that she never had done around Kaiden. Thinking that, really, that must not be a bad thing, she didn't try to deal with it as she would have done with other things.

"I don't know about that," she mused, looking down at her hands as she rested them in her lap. "I was going to come talk to you anyway. Although I admit I would have been much more... calm about it."

Lifting her gaze back to his, she added, "I can't say I am, now. Almost entirely the opposite, actually." And really, that was probably one of the most blunt things she'd ever said to him if she cared to think about it. Adrienne decided not to think, though, instead just locking her eyes on his and waiting.

Selwyn breathed in sharply; his eyes went wide.

"Uh... Oh."

It wasn't as though Selwyn didn't believe her; he had been aiming for this. But for Addie to come out and say it so bluntly. He hoped he was interpreting her correctly.

He blinked, tilted his head and watched the room behind her blur as his eyes went out of focus just a bit.

"Me too," he replied, slouching down in the chair. "You've got me wound up like a spring here."

Selwyn's hand then snaked onto the armrest next to Addie's perch. If he flexed his fingers, he'd be able to brush her leg.

"What were you going to talk about?" he asked. "Or are you too... distracted?"