The Musically Declined

Emily gave him a small smile before glancing down at the paper. Her eyes slowly flicked from one word to another as she read and reread the words on the page, the sentences slowly making sense in her mind. "I hope you finish it.." Emily finally said, giving him back his book, "What you have right now is really good."

Renard took the notebook back from her and set it back on his lap, smiling slightly in return. "Thanks, but it's not all that great. It could be better." Shrugging his shoulders, he leaned back so his back was resting against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment. "Maybe you could sing it sometime," he said finally, laughing softly, although he only laughed at the thought of someone singing something he had written.

Emily blushed a bright red, hiding her face in her hands. When she finally spoke, her voice was muffled by her hands. "I could never destroy one of your works with my horrible singing. It wouldn't be right of me to do so.. You wouldn't want to hear me sing anyways. I'm too shy." she told him softly.

Renard was surprised to see Emily blushing. Surely it wasn't that big of a deal, was it? When she spoke, however, he couldn't help but laugh at the thought. "Emily, I'd hardly call it a 'work' like that, and I seriously doubt you could destroy it. You don't have to sing, you know. I wouldn't force you to do anything you wouldn't want to do." He could tell that there was still tension from the girl sitting beside him, but for him at least, the tension was partially uncoiled. For a conversation, this wasn't terrible: he could at least laugh about the circumstances. "Oh," he continued, "though I certainly wouldn't mind hearing you sing at all."

Emily giggled softly, shaking her head again. She refused to uncover her face with her hands and look at him though. Something about this boy made her feel nervous, as if she was finally able to be herself around him, but didn't want to accept that she could. He seemed different from everyone else. Finally, after a few minutes, Emily removed her hands and looked at Renard; her cheeks were still pink from blush. "I...." Emily started, then smiled nervously, shaking her head. "If I ever find the courage to sing in front of someone, you'll be the first one." she finally managed to say.

Renard couldn't get that stupid smile to leave his face. Her blushing was... he wanted to say absolutely adorable, but that didn't sound like something he'd say, or admit to saying. "If you ever decide to, you can use my notebook," he replied, laughing softly as he subtly glanced at his watch. "Hm, I think I'm gonna get something to eat. Do you, uh..." The words were there, but they wouldn't appear. He wasn't used to going this far into conversations. "Do you wanna come with me?" he finished, the words much quieter than they had started. A wave of embarrassment flooded him: what a stupid thing to ask. Why the hell would she want to do that? Why did he want to anyway? Things had been so weird now since he'd arrived here... or maybe just since he met her.

A bright smile lit up Emily's face. Her heart skipped at the thought of getting the chance to spend a little more time with Renard, and she knew why too; she just didn't want to accept it. Not yet anyways. "Okay!" she said, probably a little too quickly. A little slower this time, Emily added, "I mean, if you truly want me to. I don't want to be a nuisance."

Renard laughed again, standing up and offering a hand to her. "You're not a nuisance. Don't worry about that." He smiled and her, keeping his notebook tucked under an arm. "I'm not actually sure where to find where they're serving food, so I hope you know where to go." He honestly had no idea where to go or what food would be there, but at this point it didn't really matter. He would eat something with Emily, and that made him smile, though he wasn't positive why it did.

Emily slid her hand in his, standing up beside him. She tried to think of a place near the school, but not many ideas came to her mind. There was the cafeteria, the restaurant in Rosebury, the café... "There aren't that many places really." Emily told him with a small smile. "I mean.. There's a café in Rosebury, if you'd want to go there.. I've never been there, and vaguely know how to reach it, but I've heard talk around that it's a nice place to go to."

"Well, if you vaguely know how to reach it, that's better than what I know. I'd love to go try it out if you lead the way." If he was going to go to school here, perhaps he should've learned where everything was, but he was terrible at directions. He got there on memory, and if he hadn't been there, well... there was no memory. Hopefully Emily would be able to get them there without getting too lost. The two made their way to the studio door, which Renard opened and held open for her. "After you."

Emily smiled up at him and then glanced down. Noticing that her hand was still in his, Emily looked back up at him, her eyes questioning and unsure. She didn't know whether to pull her hand from his, or leave it where it was. Emily herself did not have any complaints, but Renards thought on it could be another story. What happened next would be up to him.

It wasn't until he had opened the door with one hand that Renard realized that he only had one hand to use: the other was still holding Emily's hand. He didn't mean for it to happen, but a slight blush crept up on his face, going quite well with his red hair. Indecisiveness once again entered his mind: should he pull his hand away? Would that be rude? He wasn't even sure he wanted to pull away, but was that too forward? "Hey, you have to lead us, you know?" he laughed, hoping to just avoid altogether what was going on, although his blush betrayed his tone. Rather than let go of her hand, he just slipped around the door and quickly followed her out of the room until they were standing out in the hall, hand in hand. "Well, at least we won't get lost now, right?" he queried jokingly, making a passive mention to the handholding in question.

Emily giggled softly at his words, giving him a small nod. "You're right." she told him, glancing away so he wouldn't see the blush on her face, well aware of her hand in his. She started walking down the hall, pulling Renard with her. "I guess we might as well go try to figure out our way to the café now.. At least if we get lost, we'll be together." With a smile, she led them in the direction of the café.