[b][i] – Kathy[/i][/b]

“Mm. It happens.” She assured Crash, reaching up and giving him a good ruffle of his hair. It felt as though it had been a long time since she had done that. Kathy stopped for a few seconds with her fingers still brushed into his soft red hair. Smiling warmly, she messed his hair up even more than usual and retracted her hand back with a light laugh. “Good thing you weren't the one doing that dare, otherwise you might've gotten penalized for not following the King’s orders.” She was actually glad he didn't do the dare for other reasons, but she decided to leave it at that for now.

Kathy beamed at the two boys. “Great!” It was an idea she only came up with mere moments ago, but she was already excited for it as though it had been something she had been looking forward to for weeks. The nodding at Alex she replied, “That sounds like a good idea. Though...” She looked around, wondering if there were any blankets conveniently lying around for them. Going all the way back to their rooms just to grab a couple of blankets seemed rather troublesome. Eyeing some of the beach towels laid out on the chairs she asked, “Why don’t we use those instead?” She briefly gestured at the beach towels with an open palm to indicate what she was referring to. Otherwise, she thought it probably wasn't too much of a detour to the student houses anyway.

As the boys had some time to think about the suggestion, she looked around them. Most of the students had already left once the end of the game was announced, and the others nearby seemed distracted by their own conversations. Lifting the hand that was opposite of where Alex sat, she brushed her fingers against Crash’s. “Um…” Blushing again, she looked down at their feet instead of up into his eyes as she asked, “C-Can we hold… Hands? So we don’t separate in the dark…?” Her voice grew quieter with each word, though hopefully it was still audible enough. 

It was a rather lame excuse to tack on, especially considering she usually just led people around by the wrist. And they didn't need to hold hands yet since they were still in the brightly lit area of the lounge. [i]‘Smooth Katherine Argall. Smooth.’[/i] She thought, inwardly groaning. But she felt rather conscious of the fact Alex was right there on her shoulder and she felt the need to have some sort of reason to hold hands with Crash. Even if they had been holding hands already down at the beach, she still felt even shyer than usual with a witness around. [i]‘Alex wouldn't read too deeply into it, right?’[/i] Attempting to bank on the innocent image she had of the blue-haired pixie, she tried not to think about how obvious her actions probably seemed.