Keep It Steady (Open)

[Ian McAllister]

His eyebrows rose at her first statement. Just as he was about to say something Roman started going. Ian listened to her and caught every word she said. "I appreciate its a good thing that I'm me. Of course I complimented you, and you do not sound weird." He looked directly at her then reached up to move her hands from her face.

"Roman, there's nothing to be shy about," he said with a smile. "You're not weird at all. I think you're rather cute to be honest."

[Roman Jetter]

Roman almost jumped when his hands touched hers. She took a deep breathe as they uncovered her face. She had contained her blush to her cheeks, rather then her whole face. That was a big accomplishment. "Thanks, Ian. You're one of the nicest people I've met since I've gone to Hogwarts." The amount of people Roman met didn't amount to a lot, but Ian was high up there.

"C-cute? No one's said that to me before," she gave him a shaky smile. She would have added he wasn't so bad himself, but Roman was still getting used to the situation.

[Ian McAllister]

"Ah, well I try," he said. "Plus, honesty is the best policy, right?" When Ian was one-on-one with somebody, he felt a little more at ease rather than putting up a complete front. Of course, he wasn't letting anything about his complete personal life show through with Roman.

"There you go." As Roman smiled, so did he. "Just take in the compliments and smile about them. That's all you have to do. And again, as I told you before, I state the obvious."

[Roman Jetter]

"I guess you're right," Roman sighed. "But I don't think I could tell the truth all the time. There's things I don't want people to know about me, even though I'm sure it's not that big of a deal in my case. I wouldn't want people to know what I'm afraid of, so I think I'd lie about that."

"Well, then, thank you," she gave him a wide smile. "You aren't that bad yourself." There she said it. Roman obserrved to see how he excepted compliments.

[Ian McAllister]

Ian could relate to the fact that there were things that he didn't want people to know about him either. No one knew, and he wanted to keep it that way. "Well, I suppose that would be alright."

At her compliment, Ian fought the warmth growing on his ears, spreading to his cheeks. He didn't exactly recieve that many compliments himself, but he never let that get him down. Playing it cool, Ian smiled. "Why thank you. Your compliment is greatly appreciated."

[Roman Jetter]

"I guess it has a lot to do with trust, too. I wouldn't want someone who doesn't like me to know everything about my life. That would end up badly for me. So secrets are like protection," Roman was mainly thinking out loud. She shrugged lightly, not really thinking about it. She didn't have many secrets.

"How do you make it look so easy?" Roman was flabberghasted, not noticing her cheeks. "You must get a billion compliments a day to be able to make it sound so breezy!

[Ian McAllister]

Trust. That was a key point. Ian didn't exactly trust people and that was his own fault. He had built a wall around him, keeping people from getting close because he didn't want his walls to fall.

"Nah. I don't get that many compliments," Ian said. "Its other people's opinions and well, you should just listen to them, except if they're bad, but you know what I mean." That smile of his returned. "And it would be strange if I sat here and blushed madly, wouldn't it?"

[Roman Jetter]

"I guess that's true," Roman sighed. "But I might have felt a little less infantile about my reaction if you had the same one." She gave him a small smile, and let herself lean back a little onto her hands, a little more comfortable with the entire situation. Ian was being incredibley nice to her, and there wasn't really a reason for her to keep being shy at this point. So far, no touchy subjects had been mentioned, and it was just nice to sit here and talk normally.

[Ian McAllister]

"There's nothing wrong with blushing," he said. "You shouldn't have felt infantile at all. It's natural for someone to blush. As for me it is not like me to just blush." Ian gave her a wink. "Besides, I think that pink is more your color than mine."

He could tell that she was a little more comfortable. She didn't look half as skittish as she did before.

[Roman Jetter]

"Says you," Roman sighed. "It gives away everything. You could tell exactly what I was thinking. And I don't know.." she teased lightly. "I think pink would go nicely with your skin tone. Maybe a nice rosy set of robes?"

Roman pushed back to lean against the gates of the astronomy tower. It was cool, which was refreshing from the amount of heat radiating off her face. But it was a little shocking, and she pulled her robes tighter around herself before tilting her head back to look at the stars. "They look a lot nicer when I don't dislike them."

[Ian McAllister]

"Oh, someone has jokes," Ian said teasingly. "I'm sure you'd get a kick out of that one." He smiled broadly. Now that Roman was relaxed she was an alright girl. It was nice whenever they could tease back him.

He laughed. "They're nice all the time. I think its you they don't like when you're trying to figure them out." Ian winked at her.

[Roman Jetter]

"I would," Roman nodded. "I'd love to see that. If you ever go to Hogsmeade to purchase something, I'll be right behind you."

Roman scrunched her face up a little, a move she only made if she thougt that a statement was ridiculous. "Maybe if they didn't look so much alike, it'd be nicer. No one likes conformity."

[Ian McAllister]

"Well I'll be waiting for you to do that, however the rose robes would look better on you. I prefer the black and red."

"As for coformity, each star is different, but they do sort of look the same. It's just to us though. Besides, I think that you'll get a hang of what's where and you'll find it to be easier to do those charts."

[Roman Jetter]

"We can match," Roman insisted, nodding her head. "I don't even like robes that much, I prefer muggle clothes."

"I don't think I can ever get the hang of it. Although, you helping me made me see a few pictures. They're like a painting, after a while, it's tone is monotonous. Motion is beautiful, it changes, and keeps you interested."

[Ian McAllister]

"Muggle stuff doesn't weigh you down, so I can agree to that."

So, Roman liked changes? Ian could say the opposite. Change for him wasn't that great because everytime is mother would change a new boyfriend, everything would become worse. Half the time she didn't really tell them that she had a son. The only sort of change that Ian had ever seen was bad change and that was something he didn't want.

"I suppose that's true, but I guess I'm more of a painting person than a motion one." His smile had become a little lighter.

[Roman Jetter]

"Yes, it's easier to move around in," Roman was thinking of dancing, but she didn't say it outloud.

"Really?" she asked, studying his face. His smile had wavered slightly, and Roman felt bad. She liked it better when Ian was smiling completely. She pushed her hair out of her eyes, "I admit the painting here are much more interesting, they even speak. But motion just seems more natural to me. I'm not an artist, and can't really tell you how beautiful a piece is by the brush strokes or the shading. It wouldn't be my place to judge." She hoped this steered the conversation away from whatever he was thinking. She didn't want him to think of anything bad.

[Ian McAllister]

"Yeah, but they give you away if you try and sneak by them while they happen to be awake," Ian said. "That was an adventure. I was trying to go down to the kitchens after hours and a painting caught me, but I madly dashed toward the kitchens, but I had to hide before I got there because Flich came out of no where." He shook his head.

"And your a dancer, so movement would be better for you. Plus, as for how something looks differs between all people. What you may think is pretty, I might not think so."

[Roman Jetter]

"I've never tried that," Roman mumbled,shaking the sleeve of her sweatshirt, as if to test it. "Do you really know how to get into the kitchens? I didn't know there was a way." She was surprised. Of course she had wondered how the food came on to the table, but it had always been pushed to the back of her mind. "Have you actually been there?" Roman was excited. Imagine, being able to sneak out and get midnight snacks.

"Points of view," Roman thought. "That makes perfect sense. Then whose your favorite artist?"

[Ian McAllister]

"Its close to the dungeons. All you have to do is walk up to the painting of the fruit and tickle the pear. I happened to hear about it from a couple other students and decided to see if it was true. Now I go in there almost every night."

Ian couldn't believe that he was actually talking about art with someone else. He never talked about some of his passions with anyone. "To be honest, I like D.G. Rossetti and William Holman Hunt from the Pre-Raphaelite period. What about you, do you have any favorites?"

[Roman Jetter]

"Really?" Roman was interested. "I've never heard anyone mention it, although I guess it wouldn't be smart of them to do so. I'm going to try and find it soon." She might have gone when this conversation was over, but she liked talking to Ian. He seemed fairly straight foward.

"Both with similiar styles. I always liked the straying sheep done by Holman. But I admit I haven't really seen much of Rossetti. I don't actually know much about pre- Raphaelite period at all. But from what I've seen, it seems like a distinct point in art history," she smiled. "I love Impressionalism, especially Pissarro."