Dari came out of the bookshop with a bag full of -what else?- new books. New books made her happy and so her mood was relatively improved. She pulled her scarf more tightly around her neck, trying to ward off the cold. Damn, had the weather gotten worse?

She brightened as she saw a familiar figure coming down the street.

"Hey, Darin," she called brightly, and she couldn't help smirking at the memory of bumping into him with Bella.

"Freezing, I think you meant to say," Dari said, walking more quickly to catch up to him. Walking with Darin seemed to her to be a good way to help with that whole cold thing.

"How was your.. date?" she asked, just barely managing to not laugh hysterically. Though she couldn't keep from smirking a little.

Dari yelped as Darin pulled on her elbow. What that... It was just a joke.

She stared at him as if he'd lost his mind as he steered her into the alley.

"What? Are you mad?" Was he serious, here? That was... ridiculous. "Why on earth would I do that?"

Dari frowned. Wouldn't that be a reason not to tell people?

"Darin," she said, pausing after his name for a moment, "I've not even seen anyone since you two rushed off. But even if I had... you honestly think I'd try to embarrass you on purpose?"

It was probably the way this day was going, but she couldn't help feeling a little hurt about that.

"Was it really that bad?" Dari asked and she couldn't help liking that thought. Misery loved company, after all, and she'd has a pretty bad day herself. It made her feel oddly comforted to think someone else wasn't having the best time.

She laughed at his comment about the weather and nodded, flashing him a small grin despite the days misery. "Yeah.. great weather. I think I'll go have a good flight around the pitch when I get back to the castle."

Yeah, right. Dari liked flying, but she wasn't quite that crazy.

Dari laughed. It was amusing that he was taking her seriously when she had, in fact, been joking.

"I was kidding," she told him, shaking her head a little incredulously. His date must have gone really badly if he'd actually thought she'd been serious.

Dari nodded. Darin was definitely welcome company and she didn't fancy walking back to the castle alone, especially after how crappy today had been so far.

"Yeah.. that sounds good," she replied, shifting a little closer. Boys were convenient to have around in cold weather and Darin's body was nicely blocking out some of the cold.

Dari blinked at him for a moment, sure she hadn't actually TOLD him she signed up.

"And what makes you think I'm going on one?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She schooled her expression into one of amusement, but internally she couldn't help wondering if he thought she was the sort of girl who needed help finding a date.

Dari was all too aware of his sudden close proximity and she found herself swallowed as she looked up at him. She noticed a snowflake stuck to his eyelashes and was very nearly mesmerized by it, but his teasing brought her away from that, back to reality and she attempted a casual shrug.

"Fine, you got me. Tris talked me into it. And it's tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure it'll be a disaster, but don't you dare rub it in, because if you do, I'll tell the whole school about your date with Belladonna."

Dari might have ranted a bit more about the possible consequences of him mocking her if she hadn't found herself cut off so effectively. And it certainly wasn't an unpleasant sort of interruption at all. In fact it was quite welcome, something Dari had been craving all day, even if it hadn't necessarily been from him specifically.

She reacted almost immediately to the kiss, letting her hands come to rest on his shoulders as she returned it.

Dari's squeal of surprise as he turned them and pressed her against that wall was largely muffled against his mouth. She smiled inwardly as she deepened the kiss slightly. Every other part of her was freezing, save the spots covered by hands and lips of Darin, which were wonderfully warm all of a sudden.

Distraction was a beautiful thing and especially when it came in the form of a boy Dari had always really, really enjoyed snogging. A moment ago, going back to the castle had seemed a brilliant idea, but now she was quite content to stay where they were.

It had been awhile and Dari had almost forgotten how nice kissing Darin was. It wasn't that she lacked for partners or anything, but Darin was rather good at this whole snogging business -better than most- and it may have just been that snogging him regularly since third year had some effect on that, but whatever it was, doing this with Darin was definitely enjoyable.

Her hands gripped at his coat as she tried to press herself closer. She cursed inwardly at how their coats seemed to get in the way of being as close as she wanted to be right now.

"Mmmmm," Dari practically hummed as her lips worked against his. She was suddenly very, very glad she had run into him just now. Her day definitely seemed to be looking up.

If he was waited for her to protest, he wouldn't be stopping anytime soon, becuase Dari liked doing this with Darin. She liked doing it with just about anyone, really, but that was beside the point.

There was a soft moan as he nibbled at her lip and her arms tightened around him just a bit more. "Mmmmmm." It had definitely been too long, even, since Dari had gotten much action. Certainly too long since she'd done this sort of thing with him. The boy should go on bad dates mroe often if this was always to be the result.

Dari felt more than a bit breathless when he pulled away and she may have pouted a bit, because she was nearly done with the kissing, but then he suggested what he did and she nodded. She found herself distractedly staring at his lips and inching forward as she replied, though.

'Yes.. we should.." And she couldn't resist kissing him again for just a moment.. "go elsewhere. Warm elsewhere." ANother kiss. "Close elsewhere," she ammended, thinking that closer was better, because she was anxious to get back to what they'd been doing.

Dari tried not to pout too much at the sudden lessening of contact. The handholding was clearly not enough. And entirely coupley. Dari was not enjoying something coupley and she told herself sternly that it was only that it was some contact, which was better than none.

She kept her eye out, too, gesturing at a closed door up ahead. "I wonder where that leads?"

Darin didn't know where the door lead to and frankly, he didn't really care at this point so long as it was to somewhere. "Let's see." He was already reaching for the nob, which turned easily and without any preamble, he slipped inside and pulled Dari along. It seemed to be some sort of backroom or storage. There were some very cluttered shelves and a row of something Darin didn't care enough to identify running down the middle of the small space. All he really cared about was that the room appeared to be currently isolated. Merlin willing, no one would need to drop in for restocking in the next little while.

Turning Dari against yet another wall, Darin pressed into her and resumed their delayed snog. Much, much better. Though they were tingling a bit from the sudden change of temperature, Darin's hands started working their way down Dari's coat to get it undone and allow him more access to things.

Yep. The coats? Definitely had to go. Done with the unfastening, Darin's hands slid inside Dari's jacket and wrapped around her, sliding up her back to press her whole body against him. The clasp of her bra was entirely too tempting not to toy with and Darin snuck his hands under her shirt to take care of that little problem.

He grinned against the kiss as the material went satisfyingly slack and turned to bring Dari with him toward a more level surface; namely, the floor.

Dari was warm, very warm, now that Darin's hands were on her skin and that made it much harder to do anything but touch. He pushed her shirt up and ducked down at the same time, pressing kisses into her stomach before working his way back up to her neck. This, Darin thought, was so working for him. If there was something not good about today, he certainly didn't remember it now.

Yeah, it had been a bit since Darin had gotten to this point with anyone. He really should keep on top of these things better.

He let his lower body press into hers again and groaned through a smile. Definitely too long. He'd missed this. "That working for you?" he teased, kissing along her jawline to suck on the other side of Dari's neck.

Good. Darin wasn't sure how it was he and Dari always seemed to meet like this but he certainly wasn't going to complain now. He drove a hand into her hair and met her lips, kissing her hungrily as his free hand slid down to her pants. It was a bit cool in here but they'd just have to work around it. Really, Darin didn't think it would be a problem. Anything was warmer than outside and things in here were definitely heating up nicely.

He tugged at her waistband, a silent question of whether they could proceed down this very nice path they seemed to be on.

She was with him? Good.

Darin worked with the fastening of Dari's pants as well as he could with one hand, which given all the practice he'd had could have been far clumsier than it was, and soon he had them properly undone. His hand slid down the open front, teasing for a moment before pushing them down away from her hips and getting serious.