"Sure," Octavia rasped, sounding unenthusiastic.

It echoed in her bran for a few seconds, before it made her pause.

"Actually, I'm gonna... take a bathroom break." She didn't actually know where the bathrooms were, yet, but she'd figure it out. She was already moving to go, head down. "I'll be back in a sec."

To be fair, when it came to getting through this dance without Octavia having some kind of minor freakout, the odds had been against him ever since she'd arrived. Which was part of why she was excusing herself now.

She circled around the main crowd on her way, and eventually found the bathrooms, where she leaned over a sink to splash cold water onto her face, her eyes shut tightly.

And muttering her mantra under her breath. Because this was stupid, the antsiness she was feeling was stupid, there was absolutely nothing here for her to be afraid of.

Octavia was gone for... a while, honestly. For as long as it took her to start feeling like she could get a grip on what she was feeling. Not a very steady grip, but a grip nonetheless.

He wasn't exactly where she'd left him. Luckily it wasn't hard to find a 6'2" man in a shark costume in a crowd.

"Sorry," she murmured, once she was by his side again.

Octavia accepted the cup, and went right ahead and took a hearty gulp.

... Okay, two.

Octavia shook her head as she wiped the back of her free hand across her mouth. "No. I'm fi--"

Right, no.

Tiny sigh, then rephrase. "You thought this was going to be more fun with me here," she said. "This is supposed to be fun. So, I -- I want to give it a shot."

She didn't want to run away.

"Thank you."

She said it quietly, but like she meant it.

Then she squared her shoulders. "Right, so... What do we actually do here? None of the movies focused much on the chaperones."

Or had people wearing pajamas, but, anyway.

Octavia looked up at him. "That doesn't sound like much fun."

Yeah, it would probably be wise to hold on to that one until Octavia had at least finished her current cup of punch.

"Mh." She was looking around the room again. And eventually, asked: "What's that?"

She was pointing at the photographer's set-up.

"Maybe?"

Octavia was trying, here. But at least this one was something she was genuinely drawn to.

"Seems like a prom thing to do."

Octavia's smile was very, very faint.

But still there.

"Oh, we've gone all the way up to 'stunning' now?"

Octavia snorted. "I don't think that's how it works."

The smile magically got less faint, though.

Octavia gave another little huff and shook her head, her chin and gaze both tilted downwards.

Then she shifted closer to his side, to wind her free arm around him.