Sneaking around unseen [Matthew and Ari]

A flash of light- A hand? A whispy white.

Oh god...

Matthew dashed along the corridors, panting. He could have sworn he'd seen a ghost or something equally as terrifying, and had leapt out of his skin with fright and bolted. He ripped through tapestries (Carefully pushing them aside, not literally ripping them) and sped through any other passege-way he could find. His heart was pounding and his breathing was becoming uneven, threatening to give him an asthma attack. Skirting around a corner, he spotted a tunnel behind a vase on an stand and dived through it.

It was really dark in here, so Matthew was squinting. It didn't help that he had such bad vision. Still, he didn't stop, too freaked out to think about the fact that he might have merely imagined it. Was that a light down there? Matthew headed towards it, coughing slightly. Oh! Was that... A figure? He couldn't be sure, it was so dark and--! Because Matthew's feet hadn't stopped during this thought process, he went flying into the figure, bashing right into them.

"O-OH GOD! I'm so sorry!" Matthew rasped out, panting and gasping. His glasses fell off and he swore. At least now, he knew that it was definitely not a ghost he'd bashed into...

What Ari had thought was a creative way to make a door had turned out not to be a door at all. Well, it wad a door. But it wasn't the right one for him to go through. He had been wondering who did the interior decorating for the school as he walked the dark and musty passages the door led to. He was soon forced to make his familiar metaphorically become a lantern because he soon could not see at all. And that was when he realized that he was not supposed to be here. At all. And he was lost. Completely. Swearing under his breath, Ari continued on through the passageways. He could only move forward in this situation. Well, at least he was moving forward until someone ran straight into him, knocking the both of them down. Whoever it was loudly apologized, then swore, in a soft, raspy voice. All Ari could say was a "Wait, What?" And hope his familiar-lantern was alright. Poor Puffi.

Matthew felt around, panicked and looking desperately for his glasses. "Where (gasp) are my... (gasp) glasses... (gasp)!" Having been running for so long, his breath had run out. His asthma was making itself known, so he ignored his glasses for the time being in favour of fumbling for his inhaler to sort out the immediate problem. Locating and rescuing it from his pocket, Matthew took a puff and held his breath, counting to ten slowly in his head. When he reached ten, he slowly released the breath he was holding. "Ok, can breath now... Will you help be find my glasses?"

Shuffling around in an attempt to find them without breaking them, he kept on brushing and bumping into the person there, and it made him uncomfortably aware of how narrow the passage way was. He was never good with being close to people, despite being shoved and bumped into every day by people not noticing him... Still, he was rather awkward when people got too close. "Eh... I'm Matthew... I'm so sorry for intruding like this..." He still couldn't see, damnit!

"Glasses?" Ari had picked up his puffin-lantern and saw that the person who had bumped into him was panicking, even taking out an inhaler to cure what seemed to be a bout of asthma. "Uh, sure..." He said, holding his lantern around until he found a pair of slightly bent glasses. "Are these the glasses?" He murmured, trying to pick them up, but their bodies kept...touching and brushing against each other. His mind started to panic a bit at this, and Ari just dove for the glasses, trying to get all this touching over with and grabbing what the stranger needed. Sprawled out on the floor a bit, Ari muttered in response to the stranger's- Matthew's- introduction: "Too late for that....I'm Ari." He held up the glasses "This?"

Matthew winced when he heard his... Companion? His companion hit the floor in a wild leap. "Uh... Yeah, I guess it is a bit late for apologies... It's a pleasure to meet you, Ari." When Ari thrust his glasses in the air and asked if they were what he was looking for, Matthew wasn't sure. He couldn't see, after all. He took them anyway, because the odds that they were his were very high. Pulling them on his nose, everything became clearer. Almost.

"These are my glasses, thank you!" He beamed at Ari, but couldn't help but be irritated by the lopsidedness of the frames. "Ugh... Better than nothing at least." He took them off again to clean them, trying to feel positive. No point being irritated or angry, those emotions never solved anything, so Matthew bottled them up and kept on smiling. "Uh... Any idea where we are? I was just sorta running... From a ghost..." He shivered. "Well, I think it was a ghost, I'm not entirely sure, but I swear I saw one!" He spoke excitedly.

" It's nothing " Ari shrugged "Sorry they're lopsided, dunno if I could fix that..." He stood up, holding his puffin-lantern "I...uh, think we're still at school" Ari looked around "I came in through what I thought was a main door, but I've been so long in here, we must be in some part of the school from an earlier time, maybe?" He still felt awkward. This guy was just smiling and smiling at him. "S-so " He continued on "Uh, anyway, if there is an entrance there must be an exit."

Looking around, he nodded "I wouldn't be surprised if there were ghosts here. It would be interesting to see one." Ari looked around "There should be some....this seems like the kind of place that would have a few."

"O-Oh, I like that logic! Well, lets continue, yes?" Matthew asked, "After all, to find an exit, you have to move in one direction or another," He pointed out. "Also, I love your lantern!" Matthew held out a hand for Ari to take, so that he could lead the other along easier. It's what he did with Kumajirou a lot of the time, who would take Matthew's hand with his paw and walk along on three legs. Matthew didn't consider it strange or anything like that for a second. He smiled and waited for Ari to take it.

"By the way, what are you? I'd love to know about you some more, and then I'll tell you about me, kay?" Ari looked like a fascinating person, and Matthew was enjoying the attention he was getting. In fact, overall, Ari was a much nicer person than anyone he'd met so far. Both Arthur Kirkland and the mysterious Roderich were both mean to him... Matthew smiled expectantly.

Ari looked at his lantern "Oh...thank you." He wondered what his companion would think if he told him the lantern was real. Then Matthew offered his hand for Ari to take. He had to think for a few seconds before taking Matthew's hand in his. One, the way Matthew spoke made it seem like it was a friendly gesture. Two, no one was in this passage besides them, therefore it was probably safe to walk hand in hand with Matthew.

"Oh....I'm a witch" He fidgeted slightly, waiting for the ubiquitous 'Aren't witches females?' he tended to get whenever he stated his species to non-witches. His feminine looks them prompted the especially idiotic to think he was a girl. Hopefully, Matthew had some sense in him.

"You are? Wow, so fascinating! I'm a water Nymph! N-Now don't say anything about that, cos I know that they're meant to be women... And I know I'm not a woman, but still! Just... Yeah, don't say anything!" He scowled. He'd got enough of that already! So what if he was meant to be a girl? Stupid people didn't know anything. He silently fumed, his cheeks tinging pink slightly.

"A-Anyway, Witch, so much more interesting than silly little me," He chuckled, jumping back to light-heartedness. The hand he was using to hold Ari's had tightened significantly, without his noticing, due to his mood swing. Despite being a boy, he still had a lot of girly aspects, generally, like how his brain worked. It was probably a mere defect which caused him to become a boy, and Matthew was rather bitter about it. He tried to adjust his bent glasses again, sighing.

(( Short. OTL. Sorry, mate. ))

"Ja, ja, I understand" Ari gave him a sympathetic look. So this person was like him, yes? A male born into a female's role, basically. With such a mutual understanding, perhaps they could be friends. A friend would certainly be nice in a place like this, Ari decided. Even more so when you're lost in some weird secret passage and can't find your way out. Two heads are better than one. "So much more interesting? I doubt that." Ari stated, noticing the tightened hand that was holding- more like gripping. "You don't have to be afraid. We'll get out soon." He perceived that as the reason Matthew was so jumpy and....hand holding.

Matthew blinked in slight surprise. "What are you talking about? Of course, you guys are fascinating! You can perform spells, and fly! Nymphs... Are... Less than capable of performing spells more complicated than 'make this small inanimate object appear'. We just... Do nature stuff," He supplied, shrugging. He still didn't let go of the hand, because it felt a lot like a life line at that moment. "Er... Did I mention? There was a ghost following me! A big, scary ghost! ...I think. Maybe. It may have just been my imagination, but it was really terrifying! So... Please don't let go! Or perform some Hocus-y Pocus-y spell to give us magic shields. That would be good..." Oh, that brought up another question that Ari might be able to answer. "Can... Ghosts touch us? Hurt us?" He hoped not... But his subconscious was telling him Yes. Get away from there. So he yanked on Ari's hand, hoping he'll speed up somewhat. After all, Matthew wouldn't make that mad dash for nothing, if the ghost caught up with him.

"...Do you think there's a way to turn the ghost harmless? Like the pacman ghosts, where you eat that weird orb and they all become blue and panick and run away from Mrs. Pacman's gob?" It seemed likely, after all.