"O-oh, it's just..." Schwambart begins to respond, quietly, to Ivory's question regarding his voice. Well...he guesses he *could* start talking again, since, y'know...he apparently had. But he'd gone through the trouble to make all those cards, way more than he believed he'd ever have reason to use. Seriously? One of his cards reads No, I have never been taken hostage, but thanks for asking! What had he been thinking?
Wait. Why are her cheeks getting red? He thinks over the wording of his farewell note. Afraid? Did she misread it and think he was afraid of her? That can't be right, she's far too bright to think that. He assumes. Heading? Did she think he was going to headbutt her? Agh! He's probably overthinking this. He could just ask...no, he can't do that. He can barely talk to her sometimes, let alone ask her if she's embarrassed about something.
And then it's even worse! Her poor little ears with the extra floofy bits on the end, they're down! But...that happened after she flipped the card over. What had she read that brought that up? But she seems to get over that plenty quickly, so maybe she realizes that wasn't what he meant for her to see, whatever it was that was on the other side.
When she walks towards him, he figures she's just going to maybe give him another hug (that's something he'd like) and they'd have a farewell, certainly nothing big there. Maybe talk a little bit more about the possibility of practicing for the next performance. What he doesn't expect is the stream of high-falutin' sounding language coming from her mouth and-
No! Why had he shown her that one!? He'd really just written that as a joke, he certainly didn't mean to show that to her! Oh goodness, if he was ever going to die from embarrassment, it was going to be from that. His face lights up a brighter red than that one time he'd accidentally set his eyebrows on fire when he'd been playing with matches (don't do it, kids). How would he ever get out of this one?
Oh! An out! It *was* the card he'd meant to show her, just on the other side! Yeah, he'd just talk it down as an accident (which it was), no big deal. "Oh, uh, sorry, um, I, uh, you see, um..." Yeah, keep moving your mouth until something smart pops in. Great idea. Once he's finished berating himself on his articulation, though, he does start phrasing a little joke he could say that would hopefully ease the tension. Something involving poker, diamonds, and...
But then it falls short when he makes a realization. She'd accepted. She'd said yes. Well, not in that exact word, but the sentiment was the same. In a heartbeat (which his is doing a rather loud job of, drumming way better than he'd ever learned to) his demeanor changes from ohmygoshwhatdidIdo to ohmygoshwhatdidIdoright with no middle ground, a huge grin splitting his face nearly in two. "I!!! Yes! This, uh, you! We! Uh..." It's practically visible on his face the amount of effort it takes for his brain to rein in his mouth. Calm down, calm down. When he does, his mouth remains open and motionless for a full 4 seconds before he makes another sound.
"'Course! Uh...later, I...stuff!" he says, motioning to his pile of things he brought, the bag, blanket, violin, and cookies heaped on the ground next to them. "Get...home! For...home!"