Belial Luciano was bored, and was not very good at being so. At the farm there was always something to do, be it working with the plants and animals or taking care of his brothers and sisters.

But here, well...

He had stopped by the library to pick up books that had to do with uninitiates—history books, anatomy books, english books, religion books, you name it. The stack he got, unfortunately, was not exactly what someone would call 'light reading'. In fact, even the nicest people (and Belial was certainly nice) would call books like these boring as hell.

With a sigh he set down his book for the fourth time that evening. The ennui was starting to get to him. He looked to the left. Wall. A bit cracked, the wallpaper needed redoing. He looked to the right. Wall. Same. He sighed and tried up—maybe that was more interesting?

It was.

Belial stood and, in a blink, was a snake. He stretched up as far as he could and nosed the vent. A couple of moments later it fell to the ground with a clank, and Belial was gone, happily traveling through the ventilation system. At least he had something to do now. Exploring was always fun.

It was several minutes before he came across another vent. Curious, he looked down.

Mama mia!

Whatever Belial's plans were (he wasn't even quite sure what he had in mind), they certainly didn't include spying on someone in the shower. Horrified, he tried backing up, but that was rather impossible to do when all of your scales faced one way. He tried turning around, but in his haste conked his head rather hard.

All in all, he made a lot of noise. Directly above a showering student.

This is just bloody wonderful.

"What in hell-" Clang, crash, where the fuck is it coming from? The vent?

Once at the beginning of the year a raccoon got into the vent and then caught. Nobody noticed until much later, when it started decomposing.

"If you die up there I am personally going to kill you, you little shit," Aisling mutters. Dear lord. She can -not- go on depending on janitors like that, and the student-cum-model turns the water off and vows under her breath to find a real place within the month.

A quick towelling-off of body and her hair (which is long, and darker than its normal pale ash-brown because of the wet) and she wraps the towel loosely about her, and contemplates the easiest way to do this.

After a moment's thought she stands on the edge of the tub, thanks the gods and her natural agility, and peers up into the vent.

Ah, oh dear.

The snake looked down at her guiltily, and if he could have blushed in that form he certainly would have. Instead, he realized with slow horror, that he could not move.

If he hadn't been so shocked at the fact that he had just seen someone naked (the only person he had really seen naked was Cyril, his five year old brother who had the rather bad habit of running around naked), he would have remembered he was quite capable of shrinking to a smaller size, which (with a good deal of flexibility) would enable him to turn around and go back to his room.

Instead, he smacked his head again.

Aisling's not such a bad thing to see naked, either, long an lithe with a brief interval for hips. Also she has absolutely no sense of shame around humans, let alone around a stupid snake. Why would a snake care?

She sighs under her breath. Snakes. "Hold on a sec, buster." She hops off the edge of the tub to retrieve a hairband. She never could stand having her hair down for long, even sopping wet.

This minor necessity accomplished she balances herself on the edge of the tub again. The grate is old and the screws are already rather loose- ugh, good she noticed when she did, Aisling reflects. It's only a matter of a couple minutes before she gets the grate out, dropping them with a wince and a clang clatter-clatter into the tub.

"Hey, man. Wanna get out of there?" She reaches up for the apparent snake, only a little hesitantly.

Also let it be known that Aisling Jacobs has no sense of foresight. Snakebite? Ahahahah. Sure.

Well, yes, of course he wanted to get down. He just wasn't sure he wanted to get down right there. He tried backing up again, but stopped rather quickly when his scales rasped along the metal. If he could have, he would have winced. The sounds were amplified in this damned ventilation system (it had been death when the grate had fallen to the bath) and his hearing was sensitive enough as it was. To make it worse, every time there was a sound, he could feel it vibrate through the metal (the joker three doors down was playing music much too loudly—it wasn't audible, but Belial could feel the bass reverbrating through his scales. It was a might unnerving).

Letting out a snakey sigh, he stretched forward and nudged her hand with the curve of his mouth, tongue flicking out to taste her skin curiously. As a snake he tended to acquire rather serpentine qualities (well, after all, he was a snake), and rather enjoyed coiling around people or objects that were warm.

There was a moment of hesitation before his sleek black form coiled around her hand, slowly sliding up her arm until he was completely wrapped around it, head resting near her neck. He gave her a gracious look, then detoured over the back of her shoulders (she was so warm), slithering to her other arm and aiming for the floor.

Warm and not really human, either. Definite taste of pixie to her.

A surprised giggle bursts out of her- "That tickles-" and surprise. Are snakes always this trusting? Careful not to dislodge him, although she doubts he could be easily dislodged while looped around her like this, she steps down off the tub and raises her arm to look at him.

"So where'd you come from, eh?"

Belial looked curiously at her, and briefly contemplated answering. He then squashed those dangerous thoughts with a large, metaphorical boot—she wasn't just human, no, but he doubted she would be pleased to find out that he wasn't just a snake. He didn't even want to fathom how he would try to explain that one to her. 'Oh, don't mind me,' he would say, 'I was just bored and decided to take a trip through the vents. You know, to explore. I really didn't mean to spy on you—'

Yeah, he was sure that would flow well.

Instead, he pulled off the cute snake look (though some would argue that snakes were not cute), and flicked his forked tongue at her. Tasting the air.

It just so happens that Aisling does think snakes are cute- they just don't belong in her room. "What do I do with you?" She stares blankly at him for a few moments- spaced out- then comes back to life and slips out of the bathroom.

"Ummm..." She glances around the little bedroom-livingroom, then deposits the snake on the bed. "You stay put," and Aisling chuckles under her breath- as though a snake is going to listen to a few admonishing words. Whatever.

Mulling over how a snake got into the ventilation system she absentmindedly drops the towel so she can put actual clothes on. Underwear- check- jeans- check- and a teeshirt. Enough to go outside for a few minutes. She towels her hair off once more, quick loopy messy ponytail, and she turns for the snake. "Let's take you back outside."

As soon as Aisling dropped her towel, Belial's eyes snapped shut. He kept them closed until she spoke to him again, before opening an eye to make sure she was modest again.

Outside? What was he supposed to do there? It was cold outside. His snake instincts frowned upon such an action, but he slithered towards her obediantly. Perhaps he could find a rain drain. Those were always fun to slither up.

He stretched out, wanting to be held. She was warm.

Wow. Awfully responsive, for a reptile. She picks him up, shuffles into a pair of flipflops, and makes for the door.

The back stairs are no doubt the way to go- and so they do, until she opens the door. Damn, it is kind of chilly. She glances at the snake a moment.

"You sure you want to go out?"

No, he didn't. He tightened around her arm for a moment, staring outside and weighing the options in his little snake brain. He could go outside, find a safe bush to hide in, change into his human form and book it like hell back to his dorm room to bury himself under as many blankets as he could find (really, it wasn't that cold outside, but it certainly looked that way to the reptilian sort) or he could not.

It was a bit of a rough decision to make.

He looked at her plaintively, as if to say, 'it's up to you'.

Jeez. What's she going to do with a snake?

All sorts of things, actually. Let it loose in somebody's room, or in the library where it could cause a huge fuss. The possibilities are endless- but no. That'd be mean. To the snake, that is, the people don't count.

"So where -do- you want to go, eh?" She closes the door and starts back up the stairs. Aisling wonders if he's hungry. Aisling wonders if he eats mice. Oh shit, is she going to have to find mice or something? She hates mice. They're so... stupid.

Back to his room. That's where he wanted to go. He wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to tell her that, though. Giving directions was so indiscreet. He mulled over this for a moment, toying with ideas. How was one supposed to respond when one was supposed to be unable to respond, anyway?

They passed the boy's bathroom.

Oh, that was a good idea. She couldn't possibly follow him into the boy's bathroom, could she? That was improper. With a forked look at her (mind you, snakes are the only creatures that can really give someone a forked look, and the only way to describe a 'forked look' would be 'rather snake-ish') he slithered off her arm and stretched to the ground, careful not to plunk. It rather hurt when he plunked.

He touched the ground and was off, slithering to the door of the boy's bathroom, thankful it was a swinging door. He pushed it open with his nose and slid in quickly, not liking the idea of the door shutting on his tail. Or the rest of his body, for that matter.

Seconds later he was human again, hunched over the bathroom sink and looking fairly embarrassed. His clothes were rumpled—it looked as if he had been rolling around—but at least they were there. Countless times he had messed up in the transformation process and ended up completely bare.

He straightened the short sleeved shirt, then the long sleeved one, and looked himself in the mirror. His hair, normally neatly combed, was wisping all over the place. He flattened the strands as well as he could, then turned and stared at the door, quietly counting to ten. He had a plan. He would walk out the door and act completely oblivious. Brill, really.

It -has- been mentioned that Aisling has no shame whatever.

She looks terribly surprised, though, when the snake decides he has his own agenda. She stands there for a moment after it vanishes, blinking, then pushes the door open and leans in.

She blinks. Nobody in here but us guys?

"Say, did you see a snake slither in here just now?"

Erk. Whatever he had been expecting, that wasn't it.

"Er, well, no. Should I have?" He offered a wan smile, hoping he looked inconspicuous. He did. After all, it wasn't weird for a boy to be in a boy's bathroom.

"Do girls, uh, usually go into boys bathrooms?" Someone asked him that once, in which he proceeded to turn into a snake and try to bite them. All he succeeded in doing was getting cuffed—unfortunately, it was an initiate that had made the comment questioning his gender, and they hadn't been at all amused at his transformation.

Needless to say, poor Belial was having problems making friends.

"Well, it just came in here," she replies pointedly, a slight frown. A definite sort of Ugh, guys, kind of expression.

So she comes in and lets the door close, leaning on the door frame. "Really? Are you sure you didn't see it?"

She'd been just getting used to the feeling of having a snake for a bracelet, too.

He frowned slightly at the derisive implications to her look, and pondered if that meant he couldn't ask her to coffee. Not as a date, mind you (it was much to early for that, and he hadn't even met her parents!), but he wouldn't mind a friend. Or at least an associate.

"I'm sure," he said, still faintly weirded out that there was a girl in the boy's bathroom. "But if I see a snake, I'll grab it for you?"

At that she grins, and relaxes. Fangy little thing, this one. Sharp little pixie-teeth.

"Sounds good to me. I'm Aisling, by the way. See you around, I guess."

"Er." He didn't want to go back to his dorm, because the result of that would be him stuck in the same old boring monotony. He evaluated the situation, weighed out his pros and cons, then threw caution to the wind and his careful assessments out the window.

"Would you like to get coffee, or something? I'm new here, and at a bit of a loss at the whole 'knowing people' bit." He could use some espresso right now. And biscotti. Something warm, please.

She pauses, halfway out the door, and tilts her head to one side as though in thought.


"'Kay. Here, or in town?"

There, now. That wasn't so bad, was it?

Well, truthfully, kind of. For him at least.

Belial smiled brilliantly at her, pleased with the response. "Well, whichever is the least expensive. I'm Belial Luciano—" He held out his hand, offering to shake. It seemed like a customary form of greeting for the people around here, despite the oddity of it. To him, at least.

"I'm Aisling Jacobs- no, already covered that part, never mind." Little spacey, no? She does, however, seem to readily remember what one does with an outstretched hand- one shakes it. So she does.

"If it's cheap we want, better stay here. There's a little outdoor cafe around somewhere, not too bad."

"That's good." Did she see him as cheap? Well, he did say 'whichever is the least expensive'. He flushed slightly, idly wish he was a snake so that he couldn't blush, then stopped wishing that because he certainly didn't want to get what he wished for. At the moment. "Er, I'd normally ask you for the good place, but I'm a little strapped for cash right now."

He offered what he hoped was a charming smile.