Watching him with more trepidation in her features than she would have realized at the time or even soon afterwards (she was, for that matter, looking upon someone who her world would soon after circulate around), the first sincere trace of amusement lurked in her eyes when he finally seemed to allow some of his wittier self to draw forth.

"If you were among the crowd watching, that is."

The moment was gone just as quickly as it had come. In a matter of seconds he seemed to be stammering once more, and although shyness in the opposite sex had always held some sort of appeal to the Ravenclaw (Remus Lupin's charm a perfect example of this), it only served to frustrate her further in this choice predicament.

Is this what I'm to expect for the next ten years? A man who can hardly speak to me, much less look me in the eye?

As disconcerting as the thought alone was, the scarier notion was that she would spend her life with a man she couldn't bring herself to respect. As a young girl filled with fabulous notions of princes and knights coming to whisk her away from the idyllic life she'd already rather pleasantly been having to endure, the idea that she would be forced to settle for someone who wasn't nearly as smooth or charming or confident as the figures of her fantasies was close to torture of extreme proportions to the girl in question.

But that's just it- I don't know whether he's smooth or charming or confident.. I don't know anything really, do I?

Stirring back to the conversation at hand with a vaguely distant expression hooded in her eyes, Anjali managed a pleasing enough smile when he spoke of his more frequent than most visits to Gladrag's. The thought had suddenly occurred to her that if she was to make any progress with the situation she'd been dealt by the fates, she'd have to take matters into her own hands.

And that was exactly what she did.

"Could you excuse us, Claire?" she queried gently, sending her friend a grateful look before watching her leave and reaching out to take Kabir's hand (there was a jolt, a subtle one, but one that gave her hope nonetheless at first touch). Giving him a small smile, she led the way further towards the back of the shop, stilling only when she was certain they were invariably out of sight.

"I wanted to know something," she explained in a near-whisper when she turned towards him, her fingers lingering against his own before she was leaning forward and touching her lips to his.

The ultimate test afterall, wasn't it?