Arturia's heart was fluttering at an alarming rate and she was feeling the pressure in her chest become stronger by the minute. She gulped to ease herself and then began to discretely crack her knuckles so that she was feeling better. She ran her teeth over her bottom lip and took a deep breath. This is it, he is finally going to tell me his answer. Now, Arturia, don't get discouraged if he disagrees; things can always be fixed. Deep down, she knew that she would be very upset if he did say no and she was fearful.
"Arturia," his voice was something else now; it was a chemical mixture of anxiety and a mol of hope in her gut.
The blonde female took a step forwards so that she could probably hear him a little better if he tried to hide his voice from her. She seemed to have forgotten that there was an improperly placed chair before her and she so stumbled upon it and was basically ready to fall on her face before she was caught.
"I see you really don't want to hear my answer," Diarmuid chuckled and shook his head as he looked down at her.
Arturia was looking up at him, her arms holding his own and her green-eyes staring into his. Lately, she was being very clumsy and this was not a good or 'cute' thing. Her fingertips were burning just at the contact between them and her mind was starting to shut down slowly, "Uh," it was all she could manage from her throat.
The male helped her to her feet properly and she noted as he bit his lower lip before opening his mouth to speak, "As I was saying…" His lips were pursed in a straight line and it was visible that he was having trouble saying what he wanted to, "My answer is yes."
Arturia blinked her green eyes a little and nodded, "Okay, I guess I understand. It is your decision and I should have no say in it. I mean, we can work things out and I promise—"
"Arturia, I said yes." His eyes remained on her the entire time as he furrowed his brows and understood that she had not heard him properly.
Her meadow gaze shot towards him and her eyes were wide, "Wait, really?" She asked in disbelief, her mouth hanging a little open.
"But," of course there had to be strings attached, "there is a set of rules that I have come up with to avoid anything that might cause us trouble."
Arturia nodded her head, "I guess that would be fine. A relationship must always have some rules."
Diarmuid gave her a short smile before proceeding, "First off; no contact within school property—including eye contact." The first rule already asked for a lot and Arturia was seeing that it was going to be hard to comply with them, "Secondly; we take things slow," he was blushing furiously now, "this is an honest and serious relationship."
"Are there more rules?" Arturia tilted her head.
"No staying afterschool in my class. No talking over two minutes a week. No random advances. Remember that I am a te—"
The short female crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, "This is ridiculous; we're basically not progressing our relationship. I know you're my teacher and that won't change… But we cannot be thinking about getting caught all the time, we have to focus on us. On our relationship and how we will progress it." Her voice was filled with confidence, leaving Diarmuid silent for a while.
"I know. I understand that, I just…" He was unsure of what to say and it was causing his stomach to churn.
Arturia took a step towards him, a soft smile on her face that made his heart flutter, "How about we do something today?" She asked, "It'll ease tension between us and help us properly catch up." She was another step closer to him and then she reached for his hand but he moved it away.
"You're breaking three rules already." He seemed shocked when Arturia's eyes landed on him, but upon seeing her visible frown and hurt expression, he sighed, "Alright."
A smile grew on her lips and she let out a chuckle, "We could start breaking the ice by at least holding hands." Arturia reached for his hand and she noted that he flinched as their hands brushed one another. His hand was cold and rather big compared to hers. Gently intertwining their fingers, she looked back up at him and nearly giggled as she saw that blood had rushed towards his cheeks. It was a comforting feeling, his soft hold on her own small hand, the tender look in his eyes; it made her feel warm inside. "It feels nice..." She whispered so softly that it went unheard from his part.
"Your hands are warm..." He mumbled.
"And yours are cold."
Diarmuid turned his face towards the thermometer, "Maybe I should turn up the heat, the classes always complain that it's cold."
"It's fine like this." She did not mean the temperature in the class, but rather the fact that she didn't want him to let her hand go only to change the idiotic thermometer that did not matter at all.
"Oh," he looked back down at her, watching as her gaze was on their intertwined hands, "okay." He then took her free hand in his own and intertwined their fingers as his lips grew into a smile.
Arturia lifted her head and looked up at her teacher. "It's a good start." She gulped and awaited his approval.
"A perfect start."
"See, it's not that hard," she smiled as she felt her cheeks slowly warm up from the contact. Something as simple as holding hands was beyond enough for her because it had been a long while since they stood like this. She had the urge to stand on her tip-toes and kiss him on the lips because they had been together before and she had wanted to continue this for the longest time but that would break one of Diarmuid's rules, so she refrained for kissing him.
There was silence between them for a while and it was the sound of a talking group of teenagers that caused them to let go of one another's hands. Her heart had fluttered slightly once he had slipped his hand from hers and then the warm feeling inside her vanished as he turned to collect the papers from his desk.
"We ought to go now," he mumbled as he straightened his attire, "let's exchange phone numbers."
"I already have it; remember we date?" She blinked.
Diarmuid's blush grew and he nodded, "I don't have yours. I deleted it after I found out you were my student…" He seemed to feel guilty because he proceeded to mumble, "Sorry."
"Okay then, copy it down," She made it seem as if she was unfazed by said action as she passed him her smartphone, but she was quite upset. Although, now that they were starting their relationship again, Arturia shrugged it off.
After copying it down, Diarmuid gave her a nod and walked to the door, "You go ahead first. I can call you later today, is that alright?" He asked, watching her walk towards the door.
"That'll be pleasant." She spoke before giving him one last smile and exiting the room, coming across Jeanne in the process.
Her best friend held her hand straps tightly, a look of anticipation conquering her face. Her violet eyes were wide and she blinked a couple of times before her pink lips parted for her to speak, "Soooo? How did it go?" She chimed, happy to see her friend's face lit up in slight joy.
Arturia cracked a grin and then hooked an arm around the other girl's before dragging her down the hall. She didn't say a single thing until they reached the bottom of the staircase. The girl's cheeks were hurting from smiling so wide, but she did not mind at all, in fact, she liked that she was smiling so much. "Well, it went really well…." She said, her voice wandering a little as her thoughts did too.
"And?" Jeanne chirped, ready to hear what had really happened between the two.
"He said yes!" Arturia clapped her hands, "Added a bunch of rules"—her smile dropped at this but quickly returned—"but yes nonetheless."
The older of the two let out a squeak, "Yay! Bae, this is awesome! So what now? Are you guys going to go on a date or something?"
"If we do, we would have to go out of town, and I don't really like it when I'm in a car for a long time…" Arturia frowned, "But I guess we'll be able to come up with something."
"Hope so," Jeanne gave an optimistic smile, "I'm sure you'll find something."
After Arturia had been dropped off at home, she waved Jeanne goodbye and ran past the gate and up some stairs before having the door opened for herself. The butler bowed at her and then Arturia smiled at him, greeting him and proceeding to run up the stairs. Once in the comfort of her room, the short blond girl flopped on her bed and dug out her phone from her pocket.
She looked at Diarmuid's contact information and hummed to herself before trying to come up with something that they could do together that would not have them staying in a car for so long. Her phone began jumping in her hands and she quickly answered it as the caller I.D. indicated it was Diarmuid.
Promptly taking a deep breath, she answered the phone as quickly as she possible could, "Hello," she greeted, "Diarmuid?"
"Hi," the voice of the man came from the other side and she felt her heart swell in her chest, "How are you?"
She giggled a little as they had seen each other less than half an hour prior to the conversation but she answered him anyways, "Great, and you?"
"Good. I found something we could do, if you want that is." He replied and offered a suggestion with the most confidence he had.
Arturia chuckled a little, "Yes, that would be splendid. What did you have in mind?"
"There's a Christmas tree lighting and, uh, well, I was thinking if you wanted to go. It's about half an hour drive from here and there's a 'winter wonderland' tour…" His voice faded a little hoping to get approval from her to continue.
A smile was plastered on her lips and she gave a short nod, "That seems perfect. Is it out of town?" She wondered.
"Yes, I wouldn't want to meet someone from school, you know." He was trying his best not to sound too formal but not too informal either.
"That's completely fine." The young lady replied and began to make her way to the kitchen after her stomach had growled, "So tomorrow?"
"Is tomorrow at three alright?" He asked.
The girl frowned, "How about Sunday? Guin wants to complete Cuch's initiation; she told us on Tuesday…"
"That would be perfect then… but my little brother is grounded, actually. He disobeyed me the other day, so he won't be able to attend."
Biting her lower lip as she descended the steps, she answered, "Well, you would have to talk to Lancelot or Guinevere about that because it's a strict policy they have." Arturia stepped towards the kitchen, glancing at the living room for a second before catching a glimpse of a dark-hair head, "No way!"
"What?" Diarmuid asked, not knowing what she was speaking about.
"Morgie? You're back?" The head flipped towards her and Arturia caught the gaze of pastel orbs, "Oh my gosh! Sorry, Dia, I have to call you back later. Bye," She quickly spoke before hanging up the phone after her bid her a farewell and running over to her older sister.
The ivory-skinned female stood from the couch and hugged her younger sister, her purple dress being wrinkled, "It's been so long, how are you darling?"