your l.o.v.e. is MINE for the tAkInG! (Echo)

[~echo~]

Rhea nodded. "Right then."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He shifted uncomfortably. "You want to do something? I think I have some cards."

[~echo~]

Rhea looked up at him. "Playing cards?" she asked hopefully. "I've always wanted to know how to play War."

[~echo~]

Bump

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

His shoulders shook as he let out a soft laugh. "Not exactly what I had in mind, but okay."

[~echo~]

Rhea gazed at him with a crooked smile. "What? I know how to play poker, or black jack if you'd prefer that. Or did you want me to predict your future with tarot cards?"

[~echo~]

Bump

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Amusement flashed in his eyes. "Can you do that?" He asked. "I do wonder what is in my future." It was hard to tell if he was joking or not.

[~echo~]

She blinked twice in surprise. "Well, ah, as a matter of fact... If you have tarot cards- regular playing cards wouldn't suffice."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He studied her for a moment longer. "I might be able to scrounge something up," he said. The house had belonged to his grandparents, and nothing had been moved out of it since they'd died. He felt his grandmother might have had something like tarot cards.

He turned and disappeared down a hallway, and then pulled down a trapped door into the attic.

[~echo~]

She nodded as he walke off and at there, twiddling her thumbs. She was rather rusty as she had learned several years before and she hadn't done it in a while. She thought she could still do it, though.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He returned a minute later, a deck of tarot cards in his hands. She couldn't see it, but there was a smile on his face. "Here we go."

[~echo~]

She bit her lip and scooted closer to the table in her chair and took out the cards. "Now... we need to make this as relaxing as possible. It makes it easier to read if you're relaxed."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He raised an eyebrow, the motion just visible beneath his mask. "You want me to relax?" he asked. "That's easier said than done."

[~echo~]

"Well, just try. Meanwhile, please shuffle the deck, just any way you like," she said as she smirked a little. It was starting to come back to her, the memory of her teacher and learning how to tell past, present and future of a person with just three cards.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He took the cards and started shuffling them, his hands deft and graceful. He'd shuffled cards a lot before, it seemed.

[~echo~]

When she felt the time was right, she looked at him. "Now spread them out in front of you and I'll pick three cards for the reading."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He frowned and nodded, doing as she said. He swiped his hand across the table, spreading out the cards in a perfect arc.

[~echo~]

Rhea watched, impressed. She breathed in and selected one card, two cards, three. She picked them up and looked at them, interpreting silently.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

He waited nervously, his hands clenched in front of him.