No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service? (Open)

[Eli Triton]

Eli kicked the door shut behind him and threw his bag onto the bed, quickly followed by his jacket and shirt - it had been a stressful day and removing the cloying fabric helped him breathe a little easier, at least until he could get down to the lake and really breathe. He was glad he didn't have a room-mate at the moment, it certainly made it easier to wander round without his shirt on without anybody complaining or making him self-conscious.

Shoving aside a pile of clothes with his foot, he peered around the room for his swimshorts - he'd gotten more than one detention for trying to swim without them, and while he was tempted to wear them under his jeans it just wasn't comfortable. Spotting the distinctive green pattern, he reached out to grab them. As he leant down, he noticed a towel within reach as well, unfortunately leaning over and reaching out with both hands was a surefire way to lose all balance, particularly when you were not that graceful to begin with, and he fell face first onto the floor. There was a layer of t-shirts that happily broke his fall, but an unfortunate crunch suggested that whatever was beneath the t-shirts had not been so lucky.

Sighing, he rolled over and reached beneath the clothes to fish out whatever he had inadvertently broken, fearing the worst.

"Oh, thank poseidon," he breathed, pulling out half a shattered seashell rather than something vitally important or expensive. "That could have been bad."

Dropping the broken shell without really thinking about it, he grabbed the offending towel that had started this whole mess and shoved himself to his feet. He really needed to swim. Snatching his keys from the bedside table, he headed out into the hallway - completely forgetting that he'd neglected to put a shirt back on.

[Deleted]

“Poisoned apples, magic potions, spinning wheel needles...” Rose recited aloud, the last one making her shudder. She had an hour of free time before her Curses and Enchantments test, and while she was certain she knew all the material by heart, it never hurt to do a little extra preparation.

“Death-like sleep, turned into a frog, turned into a beast, death-like sleep...my, that is a popular one.”

With her books held in one arm, she ticked each item off on her fingers as she spoke, her attention fixed downwards as she walked along outside Avalon Hall on her way to the garden so she didn’t see the boy who stepped out the front door right in front of her until she almost walked right into him.

“Oh my, I am sorry! I was so di...” she started to apologise and explain even as she raised her eyes. The boy was taller than she, so she was directly at eye level with his chest, a chest she couldn’t help but notice was sorely lacking in a fabric covering. “Oh!” Rose cried out, dropping her books when her hands shot up to cover her face.

[Eli Triton]

Just as he stepped out into the courtyard, he nearly ran right into a girl who was just walking past. He pulled himself up short and flailed briefly before managing to keep his footing, babbling out an apology at the same time she did - until he realised she'd stopped speaking and apparently covered her eyes.

Frowning in confusion, he glanced down at her books on the floor and up at her covered face again, trying to figure out what on earth was going on - had he made her drop the books? It all happened so fast he could have done, but he was pretty sure she didn't drop them until after she'd started apologising, right? Still, he'd been brought up to be polite and princely, so he crouched down to gather up her books, holding them out to her politely.

"Uh... there you go. Sorry about that, are you okay?"

[Deleted]

Stealing a peek between her fingers, Rose watched the boy gather up her books for her, but immediately covered her eyes again when he stood back up.

“Oh, yes, I am perfectly fine, thank you for asking,” she said. Keeping her eyes closed she lowered her hands and blindly reached out to take her books. In doing so she instead ended up touching the chest she was trying not to look at. She jumped back with a squeak.

“I am so sorry, but I cannot help but notice your clothes,” she said, blushing furiously. “No clothes,” she muttered to herself. What reason could he possibly have for walking around in such a manner? A thought came upon her and her eyes suddenly snapped open wide. “Oh my gosh, were you robbed?” Or perhaps it was worse than that. What if he was so poor and he could not even afford clothes? And here she was making him feel badly for it! “Oh, you poor thing!”

[Eli Triton]

Eli frowned deeper in confusion, opening his mouth to ask why she was covering her eyes (after all, he would never find out if he didn't ask, right?) when she reached out and put a hand on his chest. Which is the exact moment that he noticed her hand came into contact with his bare chest. He jumped back almost as quickly as she did.

Of course, as soon as he'd actually noticed it she went and mentioned it, so it made it look like he hadn't noticed at all... which, admittedly, he hadn't, so he blushed crimson. He felt comfortable enough without his shirt on, and he was used to it when he was in the water with his cousins, but he knew he got in trouble if he walked around shirtless at home, and it wasn't proper princely attire. Judging by the way she acted, there was just something about her that screamed princess, so he felt even worse for being improperly dressed.

"Oh...um... no..." he admitted, though immediately wished he hadn't, why couldn't he be better at lying? "I just... forgot. I'm sorry, please excuse me, I was just on my way to a swim and... oh, wait!" he draped his towel over his shoulders, wrapping it around a little so he was slightly more decent, even if it was more of a cape than a top. "There, it's safe now. Sorry."

[Deleted]

A deep crease formed between Rose’s brows as she looked at the boy in confusion. She appreciated him covering up, of course, as it was proper to do, but she didn’t quite understand his words. “You forgot to dress yourself?” she asked, clearly finding this notion entirely incomprehensible. How does someone forget something so integral? It wasn’t as if he forgot to brush his hair, something else appalling but more understandable, but surely he would have felt a draft and realised there was something missing.

Hugging her books to her chest, her eyes strayed of their own accord, more curious than anything. It wasn’t like she often got to see the parts of another’s body that are often covered by clothing, men or women alike.

[Eli Triton]

Well, when she put it like that... it didn't exactly help him with the embarrassment, in fact his cheeks darkened a little further, despite his attempt to give a charming smile. It came out just that little more awkward than he meant it to.

"Well, um, sort of, I..." how did he explain to a lovely young princess that he took his shirt off and forgot to put it back on? It wasn't exactly a normal occurrence for most people, he had just been so eager to swim "I was just in a hurry you see... I didn't even really think about it... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... startle or upset you or anything, I just... wanted to swim..."

He didn't know if he was making it any better, but he really hoped she could understand. She seemed like she was sweet, and probably friendly, and he'd hate to ruin a chance to make a new friend by being just that little bit too weird.

[Deleted]

Bringing her eyes back up to his face when he spoke, she felt a little bad when she saw how red his cheeks were, though it did help to make her feel a little better about the whole situation. At least he had the decency to be embarrassed about his indiscretion.

“One should never be in so much of a hurry that they do not make themselves appear properly composed first,” Rose chided before smiling reassuringly at him. “That is what Fauna would say.”

Looking around them to assure they were alone, Rose leaned in so she could lower her voice, an air of excitement around her like she was revealing a deep secret. “There was this one time my parents were hosting a ball and I was so excited to go that I tried to help my maid finish dressing me so I would be finished sooner, and I ended up wearing a mismatched pair of gloves! One of them was entirely the wrong shade of white!”

[Eli Triton]

Eli did his best to look chastised, and admittedly he knew plenty of people back home who would have said the same thing to him. It's not proper, they would scold him, for a prince to run around in such a state of undress. It's not proper for a prince to have such scruffy hair all the time (that's why he'd cut it so short, hard for even a swim to mess it up now), it's not proper for a prince to run around barefoot, nothing he liked to do was proper it seemed.

He at least knew enough about royal life to actually feign the appropriate shock for her comment, even if he didn't quite understand it. What was the problem, if your gloves did not precisely match? His sisters, of course, would have empathised completely, and at least one of their ladies maids would have probably fainted at the very idea.
"Oh no!" he gasped appropriately, before remembering what else he was supposed to be practicing - his princely charm. He smiled "But you're so beautiful, I'm sure nobody would have noticed at all."