April 12th, 1895 - Rando NPC Event

Dean was still a little discombobulated by last night's little potion debacle, but he was trying to push it out of his mind and just hope it was an isolated incident. He was working on assuming the best of intentions and trying not to worry too much and so far was at least making some progress. It would always be in his nature to worry, but he kept it to himself more nowadays.

Tonight was Hanna's night for his attention and he was grateful for the distraction. He didn't often try to align their social calendars, since he didn't want to raise any suspicion, but considering it was still the off-season and there were only so many events happening, there was a high chance they were going to cross paths anyway. Still, he had inquired as to whether or not she would be attending and if she wanted him to tag along, so here they were. He'd kept his distance after putting his name on her dance card, that was just polite after all, circling in her orbit, but not directly gaining her company. Their dance was for later in the evening, closer to one of the last ones, as he always did, in hopes she might have success beforehand that he could tease her about.

It was decidedly difficult not to keep stealing glances in her direction, mostly to see if he could catch her eye and make her blush, or if he could quietly discern if she was doing alright. He was starting to pick up on her tells, though she often kept it together pretty well in most instances. Her friend, the bubbly weather witch was bopping around tonight, which probably helped.

Their turn on the floor was still a few songs off, but Dean took advantage of a lull in the music to seek her out anyway, coming up next to her with a gentle hand at her back briefly before letting it fall, watching the back of the retreating gentleman she had just been speaking with. "Did you charm him with your unending wit and cheerfulness?" He teased lightly.

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Johanna Applegate

  

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Off-season events were easier when Annie was here, too, because they could commiserate with their glances about their struggles. She felt good about Annie, this season — but she always felt good about Annie's season. Someone had to see her charms sooner or later. Hanna felt vaguely ill when she remembered that this was how other people felt about her.

She looked forward to her dance with Hudson, which would be a reprieve from trying to claw her way through the struggle of small talk. She smiled up at him when he teased her.

"Oh, I'm not sure about that," Hanna said, managing to sound light about it, "It turns out he finished Hogwarts in 1885, so — a little too much overlap."

She could scarcely believe that the man was old enough to seek a wife!

  

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set by Bee

Puzzled by her response, he was sure it showed a little on his face. Still, Dean chuckled. "We must have overlapped a little, no?" He'd been a bit of a self-absorbed twat near the end of his Hogwarts career so he wasn't so sure he would have noticed her back then. He certainly noticed her now, probably a little more than he'd intended to.

"They can't all be winners," he mused, bringing his drink to his lips thoughtfully. "What would a winner be like, in your book?" Dean wondered just what it was she wanted out of a marriage. She had already told him that she didn't expect a love match, but she had to have something in mind. Dean supposed he might be able to, well maybe, he didn't exactly have a ton of friends, acquaintances perhaps, think through the lot and see if there wasn't someone who matched her expectations? It felt like a strange move, given their entanglement, but if it would help her confidence a little, he could figure it out.

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It was often obvious that Dean thought about her age less often than Hanna did; he was distinctly not looking for a wife, which was probably why he was not particularly aware of things like that. "I finished in 1886," Hanna answered. If they had overlapped — which, she was sure they had — then she had not been particularly aware of him. She'd always been more interested in spending time with her female friends when she saw in school.

Hanna restrained herself from saying that her dream man was one that was willing to marry her, because it seemed like the sort of answer that Dean would find frustrating. "A little adventurous," she said, "Clever. Likes art, maybe."

  

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set by Bee

"Hmm, I wasn't that far ahead, only three years." Different houses though, he supposed. He'd had a tight circle of friends that he hadn't strayed far from. Hell, he and Don Juan had been in the same house, a year apart, and Dean still didn't have any solid opinions on his paramour from back then. Apparently Dean had been more of a self-absorbed twit than he realized at the time.

As she answered his question, Dean was caught somewhere between relieved and disappointed that he didn't quite fit her criteria. It was an irrational thought, considering he knew their entanglement was likely temporary, but he had come to enjoy her company, in every capacity. It was probably for the better. He certainly was not as clever as he thought he was in his youth, nor was art something he had much of an interest in, unless there was some sort of naked form. Then he was quite interested.

Dean nudged her gently with his elbow, keen for any subtle contact he could get. "I can be adventurous," he teased lightly. It had been something he had capitalized on in the past, much to his own fortune. In fact he would categorize their nighttime encounters as very adventurous. Perhaps more for her, but he was the guide. "What sort of art do you like?" He added after a moment, thinking he ought not to linger on that line of thought.

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Could be adventurous, as if she had not purposefully picked out additional qualities she liked that did not quite describe him. Hanna's expression as she looked up at Dean was disbelieving — but the smile on her face was genuine, with teeth. "I'd say you are," Hanna said, but that was a dangerous path to wander down, so she ought to focus on the art.

"I like the idea of liking art," she admitted, because she thought that Dean would understand that better than most people did. "But I like art nouveau. The lines are — nice."

And there were clear shapes, so it made for good puzzles.

  

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set by Bee

Dean let the conversation turn toward art, the safer option. He would make an idiot of himself somehow otherwise. Unfortunately, he was already coming up unintelligent on the subject of art, but he had at least heard of what she mentioned. He would have to get a book on it from the library before he saw her again. Come to think of it, he ought to get her a puzzle to work on at the house, if she ever found the need, while he was at it.

"You've lost me," he admitted with a wry grin. "Sounds like a trip to the gallery in London is in order so you can teach me." It might look a little suspicious, he supposed, but a public space like the gallery surely wouldn't be too bad, right? Dean needed to toe the line of spending time with her out in the open, because he did not want to mar her chances at a legitimate relationship. Nor did he really want to rouse her brother's suspicions either. He still firmly believed Hanna deserved someone who could offer her more of what she wanted than he could.

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He was talking about the gallery in London as if they were people who could go places together. A shadow of emotion passed over Hanna's face, momentarily marring the pleasant neutrality she tried to project during dances. She tried to refocus. "Are you traveling this month?" Hanna asked, seeking a change of subject.

  

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set by Bee

Dean missed the change of subject for what it was. He assume she wanted to know to in order to arrange a time to go to the gallery. He wasn't being intentionally dense, more like he wanted to spend more time with her and willing to put up with a public rendezvous if that was what it took. "Just one overnight to Rome the end of next week." That was it for April. "And Paris the first week of May, summer slows down a little." A longer stay, one he planed to start on the weekend. He had already arranged to get the little cottage that belonged to his mother's family. It would be a nice little retreat. "Lots of free time."

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Paris and Rome, just a few overnights — even at the start of the season, she'd have some access to him, should they both want it. The change in topic had Hanna feeling a bit better, but her dread of May and the new debutantes did bring an additional sense of doom.

"It's the opposite schedule of being a debutante," she said, musing, "Although the Season is mostly an evening activity."

"Do you like Paris or Rome better?" Hanna asked. If she never married she was never going to get a chance to travel, and even if she did successfully marry any travels would be at the mercy of her husband. She was going to have to rely on Dean to tell her about other countries.

  

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set by Bee

"Probably by design," Dean mused. When else were eligible bachelors such as himself supposed to find a wife? When all of the eligible young ladies were on display, of course. If one was into that sort of thing, which Hanna was, so Dean was just here for moral support, whatever that looked like for her.

Dean had a comment about which evening activities he preferred, but withheld as the conversation kept to his travel. It didn't take him long to answer, "There's nothing quite like spring in Paris, but I'm biased, my mother grew up just outside. And it's fun." Rome could be a little stuffy in the city proper, he thought, the fun places were on the outskirts. It was hard to beat the architecture in either place. In Paris Dean knew exactly where to go for whatever kind of trouble he wanted to get into. "That's not to say Rome isn't, but I'll always be partial to France. And my French is better than my English, so there's also that." He shrugged, taking a sip of his whiskey.

"Where would you like to go, given the opportunity?"

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The way Dean talked about Paris, like he loved it, filled Hanna's chest with longing. The way he said fun made it clear that he'd explored the city and found it to be full of things, full of activity — her imaginations of the city were colored by the stories she had read. She smiled, a little rueful, at his question.

"Oh, Paris," Hanna said, "And southern France, too. Like many young ladies je parle un petit peu français." Her smile quirked up at the corners. She was sure he would find the sentence, with the British accent she could not shake, amusing. "So I would love to try using it, sometime."

I speak a little bit of French

  

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set by Bee

Dean's smile turned more toward a smirk. If things were a little easier for them to get away, he'd treat Hanna to a weekend away at the cottage. It would be almost impossible to arrange, but the thought simmered anyway. "Je parle bien plus qu'un peu," he teased, finding her pronunciation perfectly fine, if a bit clumsy. Then again, Dean didn't have any sort of accent in any of his languages, he strove to make it that way. He wanted to come across as a native speaker, which of course, with French, he was.

"The southern part of the country is lovely. There's where you'll find the good red wine." He assured her, leaning in close to add in a lower tone, "But you don't need to go there to practice your French." He winked at her as he straightened up. It had been a while since he'd been to the South of France, most often work took him to the bigger cities, but he always enjoyed the weather and being near the water.

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"I speak more than a bit,"

  

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