She'd meant to go to Prof. Barclay the first time she got the opportunity. Honestly, this magic stuff scared the wits out of her. But then...the opportunity never presented itself. She'd had to figure out her new schedule, go to work, crew practice and it had only been a couple days. Albeit a couple of very busy days. When she caught herself getting in over her head, she tried that relaxation thing she'd been taught and it helped keep her calm.

The trek through the park hadn't been planned, but she missed the bus and didn't feel like waiting for the next one. So she walked. A soft, blue, crocheted scarf was wrapped around her neck with curly tassels that bounced against her jeans as she walked. The tennis shoes she wore were so white that they could be called immaculate (Katrina's got a thing for clean shoes), and the maroon velvet pea coat she wore buttoned all the way to the top could only be called cozy.

She was neither beautiful nor plain, but it has been noticed by a few that when Katrina smiles, her entire face lights up in joy. She must have been thinking about something that made her happy because as she was walking with her head tucked down against the cold, she began to giggle and her face became radiant.

Redway Park's well-tended gardens and paths were a far cry from the wilder kind of nature that Matteo preferred, but...it would have to do. He was very much an outdoors person, but not the rugged, rock-climbing, hiking-for-miles type. He was the kind of outdoors person who liked being outdoors for its own sake.

He was, as usual, wearing his too-big coat with the stains from dragging the hem on the ground. Out of a growing fear that his hair was not sufficient for concealing for his horns, he'd donned a hat - a newsie hat, pulled low. As he walked, he watched the ground - he wouldn't have noticed Katrina at all if she hadn't giggled as he passed her. He stopped and looked up.

"Oh - hey, - it's you," he said, sounding both startled and faintly pleased.

"Hey, it's you too!"

Despite being magical against her will, Katrina was in good mood. In fact, she was close to being called giddy as she had just been in the uplifting company of the girl's crew team and was still coming off of an adrenaline high. She giggled again, too happy that she wasn't scared at the moment to care what someone might think of it.

"D'you ever get those groceries?"

"Groceries...?" A frown of confusion creased his brow for a moment, then vanished. An embarrassed flush spread across his cheeks as he remembered the incident, and he ducked his head so that the brim of his hat hid his face. "Oh. Oh, those groceries. Um,... yes. Later. I mean, I got them later. That day."

He reached up to tug nervously on some of the curly strands of hair escaping his hat, and risked a look.
"Did you?"

"Yup," she stuffed her hands in her pockets and nodded cheerfully, "Eventually. I wasn't in dire need, though."

When he began to fiddle with his hair, Katrina looked up at him and noticed how curly it was. The last time they'd met she hadn't paid much attention to his looks. She'd always liked curly hair and spent a split second contemplating complementing him on it.

"I like your hair."

Matteo blinked once or twice, his blush deepening to quite a nice shade of pink. He looked up, trying to see his own hair, to check whether there was any particular reason for her to compliment him on it.

"Um,... thank you," he mumbled. A shy smile crept onto his lips. "...Yours is nice too. Looks very-"
He gestured with his hands, frustrated - what was the word?
"...soft?" he guessed, though that wasn't what he was looking for.
(Actually, the word he wanted was 'touchable').

She giggled (again, she really couldn't help herself, really, she was in that good of a mood) with the classic XD look on her face.

"Thanks. It's nice to know that all my hard work pays off, sometimes!" It took at least an hour sometimes, but today was a better day.

"So where you off too, or are you just enjoying a nice day?"

"Oh, just...out,... enjoying a nice day, like you said," Matteo shrugged, bashfully avoiding her gaze - and, not that Katrina could see it, anxiously pawing the ground. "And you?... What are you up to?"

A remarkable thing had happened. Matteo was well within arm's reach of her and hadn't even noticed. Usually he'd be backing away, finding excuses to distance himself,...but it just hadn't happened. One would almost think he wanted to be near her.

But we all know how unlikely that is, right?

Katrina was kind of excited. She hadn't even completely remembered yet that he wasn't entirely human and he was cute and nice and not a hormonally driven jerk. The faun-ness was in the back of her mind but hadn't jumped to the forefront just yet.

"Missed the bus," she shrugged, "I just didn't feel like waiting for the next one."

"Oh,... are you going home?"

He drooped slightly, looking confused. That would be because he felt confused - confused as to why he felt disappointed that she might be leaving soon. Despite the mess that their last encounter had been, Matteo hadn't thought Katrina was terribly frightening ('not frightening' is Matteo's equivalent of 'nice'). Not, at least, after he figured out why she'd dragged him out of the store accusing him of 'cheating on her'.

"Well," she kicked a stone down the path, "I guess. If it's not too late I was gonna talk to my professor about," she was going to say 'something,' but then remembered that she told him about it before, "the whole magic deal.."

Magic,... ohhh. Right.

He tilted his head to one side, finally daring to look up.
"So you decided what you're going to do, then."

"Yeah," her voice became a little more subdued and she shrugged half heartedly. "I'm gonna see if he can put it back down. I don't want to forget, he said he could do that, too, but you kinda helped me realize that I'll be happier without it."

"Really?"
Matteo smiled faintly.
"How's that? I mean, why will you be happier without it?"

She began with a nervous little laugh, "Idunno..I guess...it scares me." Another shrug.

"I mean, before this happened I had no idea about any of it, so...yeah.."

He nodded. "I can see how it could be frightening..."
(If there's one thing Matteo understands well, it's fear).
"But, you know... there are a lot more frightening things than... what you know of so far," he ventured, then added hastily, "Not that you'd want to know, though, because it'd probably only scare you more, and you wouldn't want to be, so,... ugh, never mind. Forget I said anything."

She didn't quite know what to say to that, cause he was right, it would make her more scared.

Her grin returned.

"I bet I scared the hell out of you when I started accusing you of cheating on me."

"Oh gosh yes," he said emphatically, then blushed.
Admitting to being scared so much by something like that was downright embarrassing.

"I mean - er,...just yes."

She laughed outright at his immediate answer.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I was really embarrassed."

"Heh. You don't say," Matteo replied, again nervously toying with the loose strands of his hair. "It was - ... kind of funny, though. Once I had time to think about, I mean. 'Cause it was just,... it was silly, I think."

"I just had the funniest thought," she giggled, once again, "about the look on the clerk's face when I started at you. What would he do if you were there and then all of a sudden, here come I, the vengeful ex for act two!"

He shook his head.

"I- ... really don't think I'd want to find out," he sighed, biting his lip. "I didn't like it so much the first time, I wouldn't be looking to find out what would happen if we did it again..."

"Well I wouldn't be mad at you, he just looked so funny the other...oh nevermind." Might as well drop it.

She thought it would have been funny.

"So," she looked at him, "What do you do?"

"What do I...? Uh...well..." He slid his hand under his hat and scratched his head, thinking. "I... do stuff. Things. Work. I work nights,... a security guard sort of job. I haven't needed to do much guarding or anything,... I think I'm mostly there to make it look like someone competent is watching the place. It's just a warehouse."
He gave her a weak smile.
"The owners actually have security cameras and alarms and things, but they were nice enough to keep me around after they were installed."
So essentially, I'm useless.
It didn't occur to him to mention his hobbies - well, it did, but only for a split second, and he dismissed it right away. He didn't like to share that information.

"Sounds exciting." And she meant it. James Bond-ish..only his sort of job was the sort of people that Bond took care of in a suit...so maybe James Bond wasn't a good descriptor, here.

Well it was still exciting and different to her.

"It isn't," he smirked. "Mainly it's just trying to stay awake all night,... not that anything has ever happened. The only thing that's ever come near the place while I was on my shift was a stray cat, and that didn't take much guarding against.... Um... What do you do?"

"What do I do? Heh, I procrastinate. Yeah, no, but I'm a student right now at Keaton. It's really boring, too."

"Oh, really? What are you taking there? Do you live on campus? Is it really that boring?"
All of a sudden, he was full of questions. Realizing that he sounded like he was interrogating her, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and ducked his head, blushing a bit. A minute hasn't gone by in this conversation that his face has been its normal colour.

Katrina could only smile at his enthusiasm for the subject.

"Well it is really boring if all you've got to do is homework and stuff, but I guess it's not too bad. I dunno, I work at a dorm cafe and have crew practice so I'm normally busy. And I don't go to parties or anything so I get called boring a lot."

"What crew?" the faun asked. Before she could answer, he drooped, looking mournfully at her and continuing, "I don't go to parties or anything either -... am I boring?"

He didn't want to be boring.
He especially didn't want to be boring to the cute girl, but wasn't exactly sure why... Matteo had gone such a long time without having a crush on anyone, he'd forgotten what it felt like. And according to him, as they'd only met once, he couldn't possibly have developed feelings for her that quickly.

"Well I dunno," she laughed, "Am I boring? And 'crew' is just another term for rowing. Like in boats and stuff."

"You know what, we can be boring together if you are." That wasn't really an invitation. But...she might not mind if he took it as one.

He brightened, letting a small laugh escape.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed.
It was okay to be boring when she didn't mind.

Had his face returned to normal, yet?

"Besides, boring can be fun sometimes. We'd never be able to go cardboard box sledding if it weren't for boredom." 'We', of course, being a general term.

Why yes, it had.

"I've never been cardboard box sledding," he said timidly, giving a small shrug and a shy smile to go with it. "I've seen it done,... never tried it. Looks like fun, though."

"It is! You should try it sometime. But with a group, that makes it better. It's especially fun when you're sober and everyone else is drunk. Yeah, getting back up the stairs is funnier when they keep missing the steps."

She had gone to investigate the strange noises coming from the stairwell once and had gotten sucked in. She didn't regret it, though, just sort of wished she'd known someone.

"But yeah," she smiled.

"Maybe I will try it sometime, then. If I ever get the chance, I will."
He stopped, and smirked.
"...Might crack my head open, but I'd try it."

"Yes," there was more giggling, "Everyone should do something life threatening at least once in their lives."

"Heh. Well, I s'pose." He shrugged. He didn't like the life-threatening part of the idea, but he'd be willing to agree to almost anything. "As long as it's not the thing that ends your life, I s'pose you should..."

"Right, cause, yeah, that..yeah. That'd be bad. Dying, I mean. I shouldn't think it's much fun."

Now she's fiddling with her hair. Only tucking it back, though, so she can see him easier.

"Mmhm,... yeah. Not that I ever have, but... yes."

Then there was an awkward silence, broken, finally, by Matteo giving a small cough.

"Um,... where was it you said you were going?"