Raven, Asher and Flower: Dinner Date

I was excited and nervous about the dinner date that Asher had set up. I wasn't thrilled with how he'd done it, but a bet's a bet, I guess. It's not like Raven had to take him up on it. I was helping Asher to set the table, something in the cabinet shifted and tried to fall on him, I instinctively reached out and grabbed it with one of my vine like tendrils. Asher took the pan for me and said, "You may not want to do that in front of him."

I knew what Asher was getting at. I was a bit of an oddity, a plant like humanoid kind of being. We weren't sure what Raven would think of me as it was, knowing that I had tendrils which could reach across a room might make him nervous, so Asher was just letting me know to keep it to myself for tonight.

Asher put the pan away and we finished setting the table. I was getting the baking pan out of the oven, when there was a knock at our door, Asher went to answer it.

"I'm glad you came." I heard Asher say.

"I wouldn't back out just because I lost. Besides, it's just dinner." Said a voice I presumed to be Raven.

I liked the sound of his deep, almost sulky voice, "Well come on in." Asher said near the door, "By the way I didn't get Orchid into too much trouble for that the other day did I?"

"She got what she deserved, but she'll be fine." Raven responded as he stepped inside.

I put the baking pan up on the counter to cool for a little bit and headed towards the door to the dining room. I peeked around the edge of the open doorframe to try and get a look at him, hopefully before he saw me. He had long dark hair and a smooth face, his eyes looked like darkened ash, he had a decent build too. Very cute, I thought to myself. His eyes swept over me and I ducked back to the kitchen side of the doorframe. Did he see me? Did it matter? I would be sitting at the table with him shortly.

"What was that?" He asked Asher.

"That would be my boyfriend being a shy little goofball. Come on out here and introduce yourself why don't you?" Asher called in my general direction.

I sighed, well better get it over with, I guess. I stepped out into the dining room and walked towards him. His eyes were fixed on me and did not seem to waver from my face or maybe my chest, I couldn't tell.

"Hi, I'm Flower." I said holding out my hand to him, just as Asher had taught me so many years ago.

He took my hand, "Nice to meet you. I'm Raven." He said politely.

His gaze never left my face. Did he think I was odd? Pretty? Ugly? I needed to get my mind off of it and Asher provided my exit.

"Shall we sit down and eat then?"

"Sure."

"I'll go get it." I said heading back to the kitchen.

"It smells good." Raven said as I heard a chair move.

"Flower makes a very interesting macaroni and cheese dish." Asher told him.

Oh, why did he have to tell him that? I was nervous enough already. I grabbed a spatula out of the drawer and picked up the pan. I set it down on the table and began dividing it into squares to serve. I couldn't tell if Raven was looking at me or the food, but I asked for his plate anyway. I served a square onto it and asked for Asher's plate. When we all had our piece I sat down, I watched with great apprehension as Raven began to take a bite.

"Is that, tomato?" Raven asked after a second bite.

"I told you it was interesting." Asher replied.

"Is it horrible?" I asked more nervous than I had been all night so far.

"Are you kidding? That's amazing! I never would have thought that cheese could make my favorite food taste any better." He said and then stopped suddenly turning back into the more stoic version of himself from before, "It's good, Flower. Thanks."

"I'm glad you like it!" I said excitedly before digging into my own food.

"So Raven, meet me at training ground five tomorrow and I'll teach you one of my tricks as promised."

"So you are going to teach him after all?" I asked a little surprised that even though Raven had lost the match, Asher would still help him out like that.

Asher shrugged, "He impressed me."

I happened to catch from the corner of my eye that Raven missed his glass when he went to reach for it. Briefly I saw frustration narrow his eyes and then he found the glass and picked it up. Something was piecing together in my mind. Raven had impressed Asher? He almost never seemed to focus on anything directly, he had missed his glass and then been frustrated by it.

"Asher, you beat up a blind guy!?" I exclaimed, incredulous that he'd do such a thing.

Raven dropped his fork on his plate, Asher laughed and I was left confused.

"You didn't tell him?" Raven asked reaching for his dropped fork.

"I wanted to see how long it would take for him to figure it out on his own." Asher said with a light shrug.

"Asher that's mean!" I scolded him.

"What? Not telling you?"

"Well yeah, that too but no I meant…"

"Don't worry about it." Raven interrupted, "I've trained like this for a long time. Even fought real enemies, I'm fine."

"Well I guess if you're ok with it." I conceded.

"Do me a favor." Raven said without turning towards me.

"Sure." I responded.

"Don' feel sorry for me. You'll just piss me off. I can sense it from you now that you know."

"Sorry, I'll try not to."

"Thanks."

"Here's an idea. Flower why don't you take him on in a match? You'd be able to see just how good he really is." Asher put in.

"But I don't want to…"

"He can fight?" Raven asked.

Now it was my turn to be a little miffed, "Yes the damn plant boy can fight!"

"Plant boy?"

"I… oh… crap. Yeah, I'm part plant but we don't even know what kind."

"Well that explains why your energy seems so strange to me."

"So is that how you do it?" Asher asked.

"Do what?" Raven questioned back.

"You never did answer me the other day. How do you act and move the way you do when your world is all dark?"

"Oh that. Yeah that is part of it. I can usually sense people's energy when they're close enough to me. Everything else is my sense of hearing and, or pressure changes created when people and objects move, including very specific movement patterns for people."

"That makes a lot of sense. So what makes Flower's energy so strange?"

"I've never sensed plant folk energy before. It's kind of all over the place."

Asher and I exchanged glances, we both knew what Raven was picking up on with me.

"I didn't mean to come off that way, Flower. I've just never seen you at training so I figured you couldn't fight."

Asher chuckled, "He doesn't like to be violent."

"Why's that funny?"

"Because Flower is one of those exempt from training."

Now Raven was looking at me and a very strange smile crossed his face, "This I have to see."

"Fine I'll do it, but only the once." I told him firmly, I was not thrilled with this little set up of thiers.

"When?" Raven asked sounding almost excited.

"Why not tomorrow?" Asher suggested.

"Sounds good to me, right after you teach me that trick." Raven said to Asher

"Fine, alright. But really just this one time." I insisted.

Exempt from training, it meant that I'd done so well during the training exam to determine partners, that I didn't have to show up for regular training like the others. Asher had told me that if I did really, really well they wouldn't make me fight the others, so my first match had ended in twenty minutes. Apparently that was unheard of with Ahzri. I had healed him after so that he wouldn't die, because my poisons can kill dead men, and Shadow had asked me to go against him without using the poison. He had called that match about an hour later and told me that I had earned the exempt status.

We finished dinner and Raven left, when the door was closed, I turned and punched Asher's shoulder.

"Ow."

"Pain in my ass." I told him.

"I love you too."

I smiled and he wrapped his arms around me, eventually we finished cleaning up before heading off to bed for the night.