Periwinkle ~ A small cafe that only Cygnus seems to know about.

"Goodness no," Cygnus replied. "Though the place does have it's charms. I'm just visiting. I live elsewhere."

He walked a few houses ahead and exclaimed. "Incredible, it's still there!"

He opened the door for her.

It bohemian style cafe with a wall filled with clocks all seemingly broken.

Ariadne had to chuckle first at his reaction, and then at the place itself. It was certainly...eclectic. She wasn't sure if they'd walked into a cafe or a pawn shop. Frowning, she stepped inside, looking around warily.

"Well this is interesting....so where do you live?" she persisted, observing a strange metal clock with no hands.

Cygnus sat down at a table that wouldn't seem to fit two dinning plates. Though the other tables weren't any bigger.

"I live in London." Cygnus said looking into the menu. "Closer to work see. Why? Thinking about coming to visit me?"

Ariadne seated herself with an eyebrow quirked at Cygnus' negligence. He clearly lacked experience with women of a certain quality, anyway.

"That's right," she replied, pretending to have forgotten, "you work the Ministry. Boring desk job, you said. What department, might I ask? I know a few people who work there, I wonder if you might know them, too." She opened her menu and flipped idly though. Nothing really caught her attention; she wasn't very hungry.

"You know, if you keep talking like that, I'm going to get the wrong idea," she smirked, setting her menu down. "Are you trying to ask me over to your flat?"

Cygnus found himself in the situation he finds himself when people ask about his work. His tactic was to tell them the truth. Well sort of. Tell them the truth in a light-hearted manner and people would take it as a joke and that's exactly what Cygnus did. "I work at the Department of Mysteries." He said 'Mysteries' in a playful eerie voice. "Probably not, I'm a bit of a recluse." Cygnus said. "At work anyway. Outside of work, I'm more fun."

"I recommend the pumpkin pie." He supplied as Ariadne flipped through the menu. "It's really the only thing I come here for. And the hot chocolate."

A light blush appeared in Cygnus' face. "No." He said perhaps a little too quickly. "I mean, erm... I just meant..." Oh he was so smooth. "I mean, if you wanted... no, I mean well... The pumpkin pie here is really good."

He mentally face palmed himself.

Ariadne had to keep herself calm at Cygnus' joking reply. However he might have joked about it, she had the oddest feeling that he wasn't lying to her. She was an expert herself, and something about the way he'd said it and the way he'd been trying to steer clear of the subject raised red flags. Suddenly Cygnus was a whole lot more interesting to her -- and we have a winner!, she thought to herself, leaning in alluringly. From the way he was stumbling all over himself, she got the feeling this would be very, very easy. She flashed him a wide smile.

"If only to watch you trip over yourself some more, I would go," she said easily, pushing her menu aside. "I'll have the pie and the hot chocolate, then. I bet it's good if you say so." She bit her lip flirtatiously, laying it on rather thick. His attractiveness only made this even easier to do.

Cygnus thought he saw something in Ariadne's eyes when suddenly, she smiled and everything went away. Wow, what a dazzling smile. He was acutely aware that she was moving her lips. All he was thinking was what it would be like to kiss her. To feel those lips on his...

"Hem, hem?" Cygnus was brought out of his train of thought by a waitress holding a notepad. The blush from earlier barely faded when it returned yet again. "Yes, um... two hot chocolates, and two pumpkin pies." He was avoiding eye contact with anyone and suddenly become very interested in the clocks on the walls.

The waitress scribbled something down and scurried off.

"You know, I think when I was at Hogwarts, some of these were actually working."

Ariadne turned her head to look, not particularly interested in the wall of clocks.

"Hm. Well it's been a long time since then." His sudden unwillingness to meet her eyes did not escape her notice; it was significantly difficult to get her way if he wasn't looking at her. She decided to meet this challenge head on.

"Have I said something wrong?" she asked, looking concerned. "You seem....uncomfortable, or something."

"Oh no," He said quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly. He needed to relax. Honestly, what in Merlin's name was wrong with him? "No, I just..." He tried to think up an excuse for his behavior and couldn't think of one. "I don't know." He told the truth. "I'm really hungry that's all." It was an excuse but it would have to do.

Ariadne raised her eyebrows, but said no more as the waitress came back with their drinks and their food. She murmured her thanks and waited for the woman to leave before speaking again, digging her fork into her slice of pie rather aimlessly.

"Well, hopefully a bit of sugar'll do you good," she told Cygnus, grinning mischievously at the double entendre.

Cygnus nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Luckily, eating meant he didn't have to speak. He decided to make a show out of eating the pie.

"Boy this sure looks delicious." He bend his head down a little so he could smell it. "It sure smells delicious." He used his fork to get a bite sized portion of his pie slice and exaggeratedly devoured it. "Mmmm, why it taste delicious too!"

"What do you think?"

Ariadne busied herself with not laughing right into Cygnus' face, burying herself in her hot chocolate until she was sure he was done embarrassing herself. She may not have had many social graces outside of her "flirt" setting, but even she knew that would be terribly rude of her. Instead, she confined herself to a pronounced smirk, and for once the mischievous smile reached her eyes, making them look like they were lit from within.

Now she knew why Corvus never mentioned his brother -- they could not be any less alike, besides their appearances. Cygnus had absolutely no skill with women, it was glaringly obvious. Honestly, she wondered how he'd managed to go this long without a major blunder. She set down her mug and tried a bit of the pie -- it was, in fact, very good.

"The little hint of cinnamon really gives it that something extra," she told him, in silent disbelief that they were really sitting here, talking about food. His awkwardness was making it surprisingly difficult to steer the conversation where she wanted it, and she wondered if she'd be able to get any more useful information out of it. From the way he was desperately shovelling food into his mouth as though his life depended on it, she rather doubted that.

It was time for Plan B...or Plan C, if Plan Let's Make Ariadne Look Ridiculous counted as her first tactic. As horribly cheesy and transparent as her idea was, Ariadne was fairly certain Cygnus wouldn't be able to resist. She took another sip of her hot chocolate, leaving a smear of whipped cream on her bottom lip. Chuckling, wiped it off with her index finger, and then looking him in the eye, licked it off very slowly, with her most seductive smile.

"Have you had any of your drink yet? It's delicious."

To say Cygnus was like his brother would have been a flat out lie. Especially in the women department. He did all right on his own, but compared to his brother, it would have been like comparing the danger level of a puppy to a living dinosaur. It also didn't help that Ariadne was drop dead gorgeous.

Cygnus agreed with her assessment. The cinnamon did make it taste heavenly. He opened his mouth as he was about to start the conversation with something along the lines of what she had been doing since Hogwarts when every thought in Cygnus' mind seemed like it was Petrificus Totalus-ed as he watched in mute fascination what Ariadne had just done with the hot chocolate's whipped cream.

He tried to speak, but his voice didn't seem to be working. He coughed and tried again. No deal. Coughed again, and third time's the charm. "I haven't actually." And with that attempted to drink the hot liquid only to pour some of the contents on his robes.

"Merlin's pants." He cursed.

This time, the attempt to bite back a smile wasn't nearly as successful. Ariadne had never met a man who was so handsome and yet so easily flustered and awkward at the same time. Personality-wise, he didn't seem to really be much her type, but she was far less annoyed by him than she'd usually have been with anyone else at this point. Had to be the resemblance to Corvus, she told herself. It was just so amusing to imagine it was him being all goofy and awestruck by her.

"Here, let me help you," she offered, grabbing her wand and aiming it at the spill, expertly vanishing it without a trace. "You're fine, see? Were you burned badly?"

"No," He wasn't. He said trying to hear over his heart's fast beating. What the bloody hell was wrong with him. He was making a right fool of himself. He ran his hand through his head and smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I'm not always like this. I usually have more grace. I don't know. I think I might like you."

Ariadne was so startled by the sudden, frank admission that she didn't hide her surprise. It was her turn to look rather foolish for a moment, staring with her mouth hanging slightly open. What was even the correct response for that? She tried the first thing that occurred to her, which for once was not exactly a lie as much as a misdirection.

"I like you too." She returned her wand to her pocket and sat there with her hands folded in her lap, looking uncertainly at Cygnus.

It did occur to Cygnus that his little confession might freak her out. "I didn't mean to be forward." Cygnus said honestly. "There's just," He squinted his eyes as if he was trying to see something he could not, "... something about you."

Noticing that their pies and hot chocolates were almost used up, he spoke. "Do you want to take a walk after this?"

Britain as experiencing one of it's rare cloudless nights and it would have been a shame to let it go to waste.

Ariadne blinked a few times, regaining her composure.

"Oh no -- it's alright. It's just different, really. I've never met someone quite so...frank. It's refreshing," she shrugged, attempting a smile. "I'd love a walk, actually."

Cygnus smiled widely as she accepted his offer. "All right, I'll just go pay." He stood up and paid the woman at the til. The place was small, he barely had to walk five steps to get to it. It was also empty, so he was back in mere moments.

"Ready?"

"Sure," Ariadne replied, pushing her chair back and offering her arm to Cygnus. "Are we going anywhere particular?"