Araneæ Diem
Prologue
"Valentine's Day?" Valtiel repeats.
"Yeah. Happens every February 14," Shalnark explains as he tweaks into his latest stolen laptop.
She falls silent for a while and looks around the place.
The Troupe members are hiding in an abandoned warehouse after their successful museum heist last night. Phinks and Franklin are lazing in a corner, surrounded by empty beer bottles. The others are quiet in their corner, none of them too eager to speak or argue with each other. Omokage had found materials somewhere with which to make his new dolls.
Chrollo, for once not insisting that Valtiel should be at his side, sits at the raised platform at the center. His candles surround him as he reads his books. His pale face is silhouetted against the light. He feels someone's stare on him and looks up, and smiles.
Valtiel turns back to Shal. "I seem to recall a story of a Saint Valentine who was beheaded after he refused to denounce his faith," she says. "Is that what Valentine's Day celebrates? A death of a priest?"
"What? No!" Shalnark looks horrified.
"I think her version of Valentine's sounds better," Uvogin's voice cackles somewhere in the dimness.
"Don't listen to him." Shalnark shakes his head and types away on his laptop. "Valentine's Day is a celebration of romance and love in many parts of the world. It's very popular among teenager couples. They go around in dates and give gifts and have fun during the day."
"Yeah, right." Feitan snorts in distaste. "Chocolates and stuffed bears… Those kind of stuff, right?"
"I'm surprised you know about those things, Fei," Bonolenov muses. Underneath his bandages, his mouth quirks into a small smirk.
"Have you ever even been on a date?" Pakunoda looks up from where she is doing her nails.
Feitan hisses at them. "Of course not."
Valtiel blinks and raises a hand. "I have never been on a date before."
"That's because you're too young for dates." Phinks belches beer. "You're like, what, sixteen?"
"I am eighteen," Valtiel says, quite indignant. She turns her entire body so she could face the man's wide, teasing grin. He simply grins wider, no doubt amused at her. "That's not too young."
"Well, for one thing, I am sure Nobunaga never had a date, too." Shalnark laughs.
"Who cares anyway?!" Somewhere in the warehouse's shadows, Nobunaga shouts.
Before anyone thinks twice about it, the Spiders begin asking each other questions about dates. It stretches on for what seems like hours, most male Spiders denying ever been on a proper date. Pakunoda has been on dates for several times, while Machi went on a few, with her clients. By the end of it all, almost half of the group is annoyed that the Kurta girl even brought up the topic in the first place.
Then Shalnark suddenly stands and slams his hands on the table. "I have an idea!"
Yuan sighs. "Oh, boy. Here we go."
"Why don't we all go for a date tomorrow? Every one of us?" Shalnark cheerfully asks. His beaming face contrasts his friends' dark, sulking looks. He waves them off with another laugh. "We can turn it into a game! Whoever gives the best date wins a prize! It could be money or some kind of treasure!"
"I don't want to take Machi on a date," Nobunaga complains. "She's too picky."
"Good, because I don't want to be dated by you," Machi snaps.
"Then Machi can choose not to participate," Shalnark says evenly. He searches around the warehouse and notices that the others seem interested. He turns to Pakunoda. "What about you, Paku? Care to join?"
The blonde woman purses her lips as she stares long at Valtiel's innocent face. Her brown eyes brighten as she saunters over to the other, and then slings an arm over Valtiel's shoulders and pulls her flush against her. "I can take Val out on a date."
Phinks is the first to react, bewildered. "Wh-Wh-What are you saying?! You're a girl!"
"And girls can date other girls," Paku intones, one eyebrow raised.
"I'd rather take Val out for a date myself," Machi adds, hands on her hips and standing on Valtiel's other side.
Phinks flushes in embarrassment and turns away with a careless toss of his hand. "Bah! Whatever!"
"Okay, then." Shalnark heaves a deep sigh, his green eyes trailing to where the Kurta girl is flanked between the two female Spiders. She blinks at him when he stares, and then he grins when an idea pops up. "Okay! So here's the deal: anyone who wants to compete should take Valtiel on a date tomorrow. She would decide which one of us gives the best date. In return, you'd get a prize."
"What kind of prize?" Omokage sounds interested. He puts down his ragdoll and leans forward.
"Hm. Not sure." Shalnark taps his chin.
Franklin leans back on the wall, gesturing with a large hand. "I don't really care, but I'm in."
Uvogin flinches and gives Franklin an incredulous look. "Oh! You are?!"
"Of course." Franklin snorts. "I'm not a quitter."
"Me neither!" Uvogin growls at Shalnark. "Count me in!"
"Well, if Uvo and Franklin are in, then so am I," Nobunaga says.
One by one, the Spiders confirm that they are indeed participating−not for the thrill or experience of dating, but to spite each other and to win the competition. The competition is already heated between the competitors, each one of them glaring and spitting insults. Valtiel, still surrounded by the rambunctious Spiders, sighs and does not try to comprehend how her question about Valentine's Day has turned into some bloody game.
Shalnark waves at their leader. "Danchou! Everyone's participating! Do you want to participate, too?"
Chrollo tears his dark gaze away from the pages of his book. Then he shakes his head, much to their surprise. They anticipated that their leader would want some action.
"No, thank you," he answers, going back to his book. "Have fun tomorrow."
"Huh." Uvogin blinks. "Weird."
"Definitely weird," Bono murmurs back.
"If Danchou's not participating, then maybe he can provide for the prizes tomorrow?" Yuan turns electric-blue eyes to their leader.
Passively, Chrollo only nods, his eyes never leaving his novel.
"So, what are the rules to this game, Shal?" Omokage asks.
"Okay! Since there's twelve of us, we have to impose a time limit so that everyone can have a turn. How about one hour for each date? That should be fair enough." Shalnark gestures with his hands. "That's twelve hours worth of dates, which−of course−is your decision on how it is to be done. One hour for each competitor, including travel time to the date destination."
"And the order of the dates?" Kortopi prompts.
"We can just go depending on our tattoo numbers," Yuan suggests.
"Sounds like a plan!" Shalnark chirps, and then points at Nobunaga. "Looks like you're first, Nobu!"
Nobunaga groans and glares at the young woman on the table. They stare at each other for a while, like enemies levelling one another in the battlefield. At length, it is him who first turns away with a defeated sigh.
"Fine, whatever," he says, sliding across the floor to lay on his side. "First come, first serve."
Feitan still sounds unimpressed. "What time we start?"
"We can start six in the morning and finish six in the evening," Franklin says.
"Six in the evening?!" Phinks barks, sounding offended. "Damn! Bono's the last one! They can do the sunset-watching-crap couples always do! That's like… already a bonus!"
"Oh! Thanks for giving me that idea, Phinks," Bonolenov quips.
"What?! NO!" Phinks gasps.
Shalnark laughs and claps his hand. "Okay, okay! Time to start preparing, ladies and gentlemen!"
Author's Notes: Well, well, caramel! Look who's making a comeback after the promise of a Valentine's Day Special for Pandæmonium's 100 reviews?
Since you guys have been nothing but extremely friendly and supportive, I'd love to publish this side story for all of you! This will be about 13 chapters long, with one short chapter for each Spider dates. Any opinions and suggestions to make the Troupe's "Valentine Competition" more exciting and crazier, please leave reviews and let me know!
Is there any particular scene or idea you want me to write with Val and a certain Spider? Leave a review! Should Phinks remain a sputtering mess? Leave a review! Should Omokage remain a creep? Leave a review! Do you or do you not want Chrollo to stalk his Spiders while they're out dating Val? DEFINITELY leave a review! 😂😂😂
On a side note, I've been having problems with publishing my stories due to my MS Office (where I only write the chapters) has deactivated and now I cannot access, edit, and even copy-paste my stories to other writing platforms. And a new Office costs like a hundred dollars! I should start a GoFundMe, really. Haha! Still, I managed to get this published, and I really wanted it published today because it's Kurapika's birthday! I wanted to do something for my Golden Boy for his birthday, even if it means torturing Val with twelve(?) dates in a row.
That's all for now! Until I could figure out my MS Office, at least. Hopefully, I could do something about it. I'll publish the next chapters when I could. Thank you very much guys for all the love and support! You're all the best and I hope you have a great week!
P.S. Happy birthday, Kurapika! 💖 P̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶p̶ ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶g̶a̶.̶