It was a beautiful day outside. Spring had sprung. The weather was warm, the sun was shining. Hansel had arranged to meet Liesl today to work on their fair project, but it was way too nice outside to just walk over to the library and pour through books to find famous parselmouths or snake myths to add to their displays.
He smiled when he saw her enter the common room. She really was so pretty. He loved her hair, her smile, and the interesting clothes she wore.
"Hey, Liesl," he greeted her warmly. "Do you want to ditch the library and go on a date walking through the gardens with me instead?" He'd been thinking of their outings as dates for most of this year, of course, and they'd been holding hands more often lately, but this was the first time he'd actually used the word 'date' or 'dating' out loud, where Liesl could hear it. Realizing habitual thought patterns had taken the place of bravery in finally taking that step, he felt his cheeks warm a little, but he didn't think Liesl would object to the terminology, so he didn't apologize or take it back.
Mostly, he just wondered if she'd react like she understood that they'd been dating since the ball already and not even notice, or if she laugh at him for taking this long to finally call it what it was, or if she'd squeal a little.
He kinda hoped she'd squeal, at least on the inside.
Liesl was really glad to have decided to work on a Fair project with Hans. Had she decided to pick, like, another horror-related topic and have a booth next to him then they wouldn’t be spending quite as much time together. Or maybe they would do things like go to the library to look up separate topics and sit next to each other while reading separate books-which actually sounded like what Aladrens did on dates. However, they were Teppenpaws, and while not all Teppenpaws were super outgoing, they did tend to be more the type who were about spending time with the people they liked which included a little bit more interaction with each other than Liesl would imagine someone like Olaf would want.
Granted, it might not be fair to generalize Teppenpaws in a way that wasn’t specifically in their house description and unfair to say Aladrens would not be the same. Like, Liesl was sure that Jason would some day find someone that he liked as much as she liked Hans and be attentive and value his girlfriend. However, her cousin was the most Teppish Aladren that the sixth year knew-which considering that most Aladrens she knew included Desmond, Father, Olaf,Topaz and Uncle Mortimer was a fairly low bar but still-and had been raised by one of the most Teppish Teppenpaws that she knew. Also, all the Teppenpaws that Liesl knew who fit the description of most Teppish Teppenpaws were people who were very good to their partners. Uncle Cory was nothing but amazing to Aunt Amy and Owen and Jemima were like…what Liesl aspired to with Hans.
If he ever asked her to be his girlfriend! She hated to admit it but she sort of felt time ticking away. Sometimes she was able to stop and remind herself that obviously she and Hans were going to keep in touch when he graduated, and since they’d be in touch and visiting-well, Liesl would be visiting Hans, unless he was coming to Uncle Cory’s, but honestly, no offense to her cousins, she was pretty sure her friend would prefer snakes to pre-Sonora aged children, though more because Hans really really liked snakes than anything else-but often she was painfully aware that her friend, her best and only non-related friend, was graduating at the end of the year and they would no longer be together every day like they were at Sonora. Maybe it was some sort of psychological trick but the pain and dread were real.
And the realization that even though Hans was obviously irreplaceable, she was still going to be exceedingly lonely next year! Yes, she would have Krisalyn and Jason, but she…honestly did not just want to hang out with Beginner students. That was not the good kind of creepy and not the sort that Liesl wanted to be seen as. Plus, they should be making their own friends outside of her or their family.
She knew that she should be doing so as well. Making other friends, cultivating them for next year. However, Liesl was not always a creature ruled by logic the way that Desmond was or at least thought himself to be as he tended to be ruled by irrational disgust and snobbery way too often. She was a Teppenpaw and teenage girl, creatures ruled by emotion and, in the case of the latter, hormones and wanted to squeeze as much possible Hans time into what time remained. Whether or not they were a couple or best friends at the end of it-though Liesl knew which she’d obviously prefer-remained to be seen.
Today they had planned to go to the library to continue their Fair project. However, when she met the older Teppenpaw, he said one of the words that Liesl had been listening for since the beginning of the year. Sure, she had spent a lot of time doing the sort of activities that could be done on dates with Hans but they were also the same ones that could be done with friends and both her self esteem was low enough and she wanted this badly enough that she didn’t want to assume things and get her hopes up just to be destroyed emotionally if Hans said he only wanted to be friends and didn’t see her that way.
Her eyes grew big and her entire face lit up as she squealed “Like, an actual date? Like…as boyfriend and girlfriend?”