Cannonballs of cotton candy;

[chocolatepudding]

Who: Dustin Henderson and Coraline Jones
Where: music room
When: backdated to Feb 14
Rating: PG probably closer to G
Summary: Thanks to Frisk, Dustin has something for Coraline.
The Story:

This is stupid. This is so stupid. This is so stupid, but here he is anyway in the music room, paper valentine clutched in his hands like it might possibly run away or try to escape. Girls are gross anyway, so why is he even here?

Dustin should just take off. Just leave, and pretend he hadn't asked Coraline to meet him here. He's just caught up in the holiday spirit, that's all--or maybe it's Wonderland messing with them again. Yeah. That's the only explanation of why he's so nervous. Especially since it's Coraline, and she's not a real girl anyway, like Eleven.

Oh, God, now he knows how Mike feels. He rolls his eyes and forces himself to stand up somewhat straight. He hangs with Coraline all the time, so why be nervous? He's not nervous. He's cool as a cucumber. He's totally fine.

"Who am I kidding?" It's mumbled to himself and he runs his free hands across his face, groaning, clearly annoyed with himself. All he has to do is give the stupid paper heart to Coraline when she arrives. Then he can run away as fast as he possibly can.

Comments

[doorkey]

Coraline's not entirely sure why she's been summoned to the music room, but given recent rumors of Dustin's antics around the mansion, she'd be surprised if it wasn't some invitation to follow around smitten couples kissing with kazoos or embarassing anyone trying to have a romantic date in the tearoom with wel-placed whoopie cushions.

It's been a very busy day of glitterbombing robots and making microwaved mug brownies studded with conversation hearts and cinnamon red hots, so far. All in all that's remarkably sane, for a Wonderland holiday.

"Hey Dustin, what's up!" She calls out cheerfully, showing up in a denim romper dress with colorful patterned hearts on her leggings and the long-sleeved shirt underneath. "Wanna be a singing telegrammer with me and Frisk?"

[chocolatepudding]

"No!" Dustin shouts, and his voice squeaks, and it's dumb, it's so dumb, and he hastily shoves the heart behind his back. Maybe he can just run away? He scrunches his face up, pained for a moment, before sighing heavily.

Time to steamroll.

"I mean, yeah, I'd love to--but, maybe later? Frisk is pretty cool, though, aren't they?

Just say it, Dustin. Geeze.

[doorkey]

Coraline startles a little at his forceful rejection of that idea, holding both palms up and edging a step backward with a funny, wary look.

"Okaaay?" She answers with a shrug, tilting her head. What a weird reaction. Boys are so weird. "You don't have to, and you don't have to yell at me for asking, yeesh."

Dustin's flustered recovery only makes her a little suspicious for whatever he's hiding behind his back. Another pingpong slingshot? A pie in the face? What's the big idea?

"Frisk? Of course, we're totally Palentines!'" She poses dramatically, popping up one foot and waving a limp-wristed gesture.

[chocolatepudding]

"Ha--yeah. Palentines, that's hilarious." It's said like he has no concept of the word 'hilarious,' and probably because he really doesn't. Not now.

"So, uh, I kind of wanted to meet you here for a reason? But not a bad reason. I thought about knocking on your door and running away, and then I remembered what you said about bravery a while ago, and I thought that was pretty much the exact opposite of what you were saying, so.. I have something for you."

[doorkey]

Sorry, Dustin. They kind of took a stale dad joke too far, in their eagerness to make nice with one another after prolonged awkwardness.

When it falls flat, however, she looks a bit cross, and folds her arms expectantly.

"Oh... kay?" Coraline tilts her head uncertainly, not sure she likes where this is going. "You... really were gonna ding-dong ditch me? Why?"

[chocolatepudding]

"Okay--okay, but you can't make it weird, okay?" He's said 'okay' entirely too much, and he knows it, and Coraline knows it, and this would be solved if he just gave it to her, so he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes tightly.

"It's just valentines day and I thought, since you're the coolest person here, that--you know--can you just promise not to laugh, first?"

[doorkey]

"You're the one making it all weird!" She protests, already feeling a stupid flush crawling high into her cheeks. Stupid boys! Stupid Valenines!

And she still wasn't entirely convinced Dustin didn't have a pink cupcake to shove into her face as a prank, if not for the suspicion that it really took a lot for him to be genuinely mean to a friend.

Plus he apparently thought she was the coolest??

When he knew a girl who could move things with her mind?

"No tricks, right?" Coraline raised her palms warily... then after a moment, made an exhasperated noise and held them out with her eyes closed.

"Urgh, just... give me the darn Valentine already, Dustin, geez!" She fumed, "Don't be all secret admirer on me when we already know each other and we're already friends?"

Why'd it have to be so weird? Why had't she thought to come up with some really crummy Star Wars jokes and shove them on some construction paper? Now she looked like the jerk friend!

"I feel kinda bad now," she admits, her shoulders slumping. "I didn't make you one."

'Cause he'd get teased about stuff like that, right? They both would. End up on Frisk's list and everything.

[chocolatepudding]

It's done. The purple construction paper and the poem, written in Frisks's own handwriting: 'Roses are red, your name is Coraline. I think you're cool - will you be my Valentine?' is handed over.

It's over. It's over, and Dustin wishes he feels relieved. He does on some strange level--some teeny part of him is glad it's just over--but there's also the fact that he thinks somehow he's made Coraline sad. That's even worse than mad, and he begins to panic.

"It's okay," He says simply, "I just wanted to make sure--you know, that if I was gonna give a valentines to anyone, it would be you. You didn't have to do anything, Coraline. Just be yourself."

[doorkey]

Coraline looks down at the heart-card, relieved at least that someone's finally written her name down right on the first try, and feels her face going red, her belly doing funny flip-flops.

Her eyes dart back up at Dustin suspiciously, her mouth pursed.

A boy thought she was cool. It was a boy she also thought was generally pretty cool. It wouldn't be so bad if it was ust a Palentine, but this looked alarmingly like the real deal.

"This isn't, like... a real boyfriend Valentine, or anything, is it?" She clarified, fingers clutching the edges of the card as tightly as she could without crumbling it. Because she was only eleven years old. She wasn't ready for that.

As far as Coraline's father was concerned, she probably shouldn't be ready for that till after college, which was like FOREVER away.

Somebody was going to see this thing, and tease them both to the ends of the universe about it. It had to be burned immediately, or maybe buried in the bottom of her sock drawer.