Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor

How the hell had Lisa talked me into this? Here I was, standing in front of a Boardwalk coffee shop dressed in the nicest clothes I own. Lisa had somehow talked me into meeting her friend Brian here on a blind date. Well, "date" wasn't the right word I don't think. I mean, we were meeting here and we were just going to talk over tea or coffee or something. That's not a date, is it? I don't think that's a date.

I kept my eyes peeled. I'd seen pictures of him, so I'd recognize him when I saw him and-there. Brian was a handsome young black man, with a lantern jaw and his hair pulled back in cornrows. He was tall-taller than me, and I was pretty tall, with wide shoulders and a good deal of muscle. He was dressed sharply, in a nice shirt, nice jeans, and an open blazer.

I waved to him and he came over. "Brian?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah, that's me" he answered. "And you must be Taylor."

"Yeah." And then we stood there awkwardly and silently for a moment.

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…

"So," Brian asked, "We should probably go in."

"Yeah." Oh god, I was going to strangle Lisa the next time I saw her.

The young man and I walked into the coffee shop... and waited for an awkward few minutes until a table opened for us. The shop was very crowded today. Weekend, relatively early in the day. It made sense that it would be crowded. Eventually, we were seated and placed orders-a cup of coffee for him and a cup of black tea, with milk, for me.

And then more awkward silence. I started looking around at the other patrons… Yeah, just ordinary people like us… Well, except one vaguely familiar blonde chick who was glaring at Brian and I. Off the top of my head, there's only the one reason someone would glare at a white girl and a black boy sitting together, but I figured that if Sabrina the Teenaged Nazi-Wannabe over there wasn't going to start shit then she wasn't worth paying attention to.

I turned back to Brian, but finding nothing to say I just started tapping my finger on the table. For what it was worth, he seemed to be just as unsure what to do as I was… Was that Madison? No, false alarm.

Our tea and coffee had been brought and still, neither of us said a word. I took a sip and thought for a moment. "So," I said, trying to break the ice, "Lisa hasn't really told me anything about you, so… Tell me about yourself?"

"There's not much t say about myself, really" he began, "I'm either working or trying to keep my sister out of trouble. If I have free time I'm either working out or reading." A responsible big brother, an athletic type, and a reader. Well, that was something. I thought about asking him what his job was, but he continued. "So, what about you?"

"I'm still a student, so a lot of my time is taken up by school," I said… "Until recently I was kind of a loner, but about a month ago I started making some friends, so in my spare time if I'm not reading I'm hanging out with one of them." After thinking about it for a minute, I added. "And recently I've been considering doing some volunteer work." Being a cape counted as volunteer work, right? I mean, I wasn't getting paid for it… at least not right now.

"That's interesting," Brian said before taking a sip of his coffee. More silence, and then "Look, I'll be honest with you. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm not even looking for this kind of relationship. I'm sorry, you seem nice, but I'm only here because Lisa called in a favor."

"Oh thank god," I half-said-half-sighed. That was a relief. "I honestly have no idea how she talked me into this." From the corner of my eye, I saw a young Asian man look straight at us and then pour a significant amount of sugar into his coffee.

"Yeah, she can do that to you," Brian said. "I saw a guy harassing her once. She made him soil himself just by talking."

I laughed, then tugged the collar of my blouse. "She duck-seasoned me into letting her buy this outfit for me."

We both laughed. The ice sufficiently broken, we spent the next ten minutes talking about books we'd read, things we'd done, and so on. Then the conversation went in an odd direction.

"Have you ever checked out the 'haunted' cafe just outside the boardwalk?"

"I've heard of it," Brian said, "but I've never seen the appeal of investigating town rumors. What's the story behind that place, anyway?"

"Oh, it was just this really old cafe," I explained, "like I don't know how old but it closed down in the eighties. Nobody ever bought it, the building got run down, and like all abandoned run down buildings in prominent locations the rumors about it being haunted started flowing." I thought back to some bitter memories. "A... A friend and I snuck into the building one Halloween back in middle school, but I couldn't stay long. Something about the place gave me the creeps."

"Yeah, I never did anything like that," Brian admitted, "it sounds like something I'd have to keep my sister from doing though."

"My parents had a date there," I said, "before it closed down. Said the service was exemplary, that they'd never seen a more diverse menu, and Dad called the place magical." I sighed. "I kind of wish I'd gotten a chance to go." Brian hummed in acknowledgment.

We talked a bit more, on various subjects. Eventually, however, we finished our drinks and paid.

"I'd like to see you again," I told the young man as we left the coffee house. "I mean, not as a date." Not that that had been much of a date by the end, even if it might have started as one. "But if we could just hang out as friends sometime?"

"If I can find the time," Brian agreed. We parted ways and I went home. I passed the haunted cafe on me way out and stopped for a moment to take it in. The cast-iron sign was rusted from decades of neglect, but I could still make out the letters that spelled "Ahnenerbe." Opal, resting in my hair but thankfully silent throughout the afternoon, shuddered. I'd have to ask her why later.