Kathy's momentary hesitation left Crash wondering whether he should have just gone down the bicycle route once he'd realised the mix up...lying wasn't something he did easily but seeing how awkward it had become between them, hindsight told him it would have been the easier path. Her explanation was unexpected, pleasantly so. The nervous smile was enough to trigger one of his own, though his ended up stranded between reassurance and surprise. He remained quiet throughout the entirety of Kathy's speech, looking ahead as they walked with a thoughtful look on his face. When she had finished he was silent for a moment longer before he exhaled and relaxed. The edge of his mouth lifted into a relieved-but-amused smile, crinkles appeared at the edge of his visible eye and it's ruby depths came alive with warmth.
"Thank you" He responded, turning his head to look at her, half expecting to be met with confusion.
"For explaining instead of just...judging"His hand sought out the back of his neck as he continued
"It's completely understandable...I mean, not completely, I'm not you...and having balance is a foreign concept to me" His smile grew into a grin
"But I can understand where you're coming from on that. And even though I hate to admit it you are right, they're dangerous..." "...a fraction more dangerous than other vehicles" He just couldn't but slide that in and accompany it with a mischievous smile
"Don't be envious, not even a bit. You could do it if you put your mind to it...""Thinking on it, I'm a little jealous of you after hearing that" He teased
"Walking everywhere must have lead you to a lot of interesting places" Places motorists were more likely to miss in the blur of landscape caught in their peripheral vision or brief glances.
---
After the text fumble, the time in which Crash had to get ready had dwindled significantly. So instead of moving his bike, he'd used peregrine falcon speed to get him back to his place just outside of the academy. He'd changed as quickly as possible but even moving at
sanic sonic speed didn't seem to help. By the time Kathy left her room he was only halfway into his return flight.
The wind slid effortlessly through his feathers as he flapped his wings and soared above the clouds to angle himself for a dive. Tucking his wings close to his side, he dipped his head and plummeted down towards the town below, swooping across the rooftops and into the Academy's courtyard at an impressive speed. Opening his wings to steady himself, he flew towards the main building in search of a quick entrance, which turned out to be a large window on one of the ground floor(?) corridors. He'd used it to get outside after the text fiasco, to save him some time rather than running the risk of getting lost...it was a risk for him, even the most simplistic floor plans could confuse him...his brain worked in the most bizarre way.
Pulling his wings in tight and turning onto his side, Crash slid through the gap and into the hallway beyond it...straight into the wall opposite in fact. Bouncing back from the hard surface, he shook his head and took off down the corridor with minor difficulty, his wingspan was nearly as wide as the corridor itself, bordering 119 cm with the corridor being roughly a cm or two bigger. In hind sight he should have shifted back before attempting the journey...but that was the
not so glorious thing about hindsight. It was poor judgement on his part. In his head changing into another animal required more energy than he felt he had and wings were faster than legs. Luckily for him the corridor he'd gone into was a straight line away from the ballroom, carefully gliding over a few of the other student's heads, he caught sight of a familiar person leant against the wall.
Unfortunately, what should have been a graceful entrance...with Crash sailing in, landing perfectly on his feet and waltzing over to Kathy...ended up being a crash landing. At the sight of Kathy, Crash's sense of awareness went from okay to non-existent...and he all but forgot that he wasn't floating on air but was supposed to be flying. He ended up sailing straight past her and onto a collision path with a dangling light fixture a few feet away.
The series of events that followed could only be described as a classic Crashisode. When his wing connected with the light fixture, he released an ungainly squawk and spun off to the side, only to then bounce off of a display cabinet and slam beak first into the floor, with enough momentum to roll on a few yards in a mass of red and cream feathers, until he promptly shifted back in a burst of purple smoke. As the smoke cleared, it revealed a slightly dishevelled looking Crash, standing upright and brushing himself down.
Looking up at Kathy, he gave her a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his neck
"Falcon, best way to travel....though the landing could use a little work" he joked, flushing with embarrassment.
'At least I didn't splat against the wall this time' Thinking on it though, splatting against the wall might have been an easier one to recover from...
All in all, apart from being a little ruffled by the landing, Crash and his attire had come out of the episode unharmed. He was wearing a smart pair of dark blue jeans coupled with black brogues. On his torso he wore a black slim fit blazer with a smart button up shirt underneath*...hopefully pulling off a smart-casual look. He figured that if he hadn't he'd soon be set straight, be it by the worlds most fashionable skylark or a fellow student.
He'd even managed to put in a little extra effort to mask the bandana around his neck, changing it's shape to that of black lace necklace around the nape of his neck with a
World Triad resting just below his collar bone. He'd been unable to lose the eye patch though, not from lack of trying, trying to glamour it was a massive undertaking and the slightest blip in his concentration could have undone it. He wasn't willing to risk that happening.
Adjusting one the sleeves of his blaze, Crash walked over to where Kathy was, taking in her appearance as he did...finding that he didn't need to be fashion savvy to realise how well her dress suited her. The corner of his mouth twitched up of it's on accord as his eyes briefly rested on her shoes before he returned his attention to her face.
"Sorry, I-I didn't keep you waiting long did I?" He asked, nervously gripping the inner edges of his blazer to straighten it out. He hadn't been nervous before, but now that he was stood in front of her, a fluttering feeling had invaded his chest, causing his heart to beat faster and a fizzle to settle in his belly.
"You look amazing" He murmured, touching the back of his neck as color seeped into the tops of his cheeks
'Really Crash? That's the best you've got...' With that thought in his mind he glanced towards the ballroom doors, before extending his arm towards them.
"Shall we...?" (* Something like
this)
@Theobromine
