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Chapter 31: First Date

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Delsin arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early to reserve the table. The place he had picked out was a fancy little hole-in-the-wall kind of place he had discovered in his time as the Banner Man. It was quiet, and small, with a split-level design with a small bar on the upper floor. He knew Velvet wouldn't want somewhere obvious so he got them a table in the back in a corner so it would be just the two of them.

From what he could see, there were only a few other people in the restaurant. There was a group of people quietly celebrating a birthday, a couple there for a date much like Delsin, and a few tables away was a group of ladies having what appeared to be a girls' night out. All in all, it was a very cozy atmosphere.

He approached the hostess's stand.

"Hello and welcome to Table Salt, how may assist you this evening?" the lady asked. She was a petite young woman, maybe 25 years old and five and a half feet tall, her dark hair cut in a short bob.

"I'd like a table for two, please? My date will be here in a minute," Delsin told her.

"May I have a name sir?"

"Delsin. Delsin Rowe."

The woman smiled.

"Right this way sir."

"Towards the back if you don't mind. My date is a little shy."

"No problem, sir."

The hostess led him to a small table at the back of the restaurant as he asked. It was a cozy little spot out of view of most of the patrons. In a word it was perfect.

"Here you are, sir," The hostess said.

"Thank you."

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"Just water will be fine."'

"Alright," she said, placing a menu on the table, "I'll get that right out for you. Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do."

As the hostess walked away, Delsin looked around again. He felt a bit awkward just sitting and waiting, for Velvet to arrive, but she had insisted on meeting him there. And when she walked through the door, he found she was worth the wait.

He could see her from the table. Her dress was a lovely gingerbread color, with a single strap around her right shoulder. The skirt stopped just above her knees, with the color brightening to a soft golden-brown at the bottom. Much like usual, her choice of accessories was sparse, save for a pair of simple studded earrings set with what appeared to be emeralds.

"Velvet," he said warmly, "You look amazing."

"Oh! Thank you, Coco helped me pick it out."

"And the earrings. Are those emeralds?"

"Oh, they're Dust actually. She gave them to me in case you 'tried something'," Velvet explained, emphasizing the air quotes.

"Well either way they look great on you."

He got up and pulled a chair out for her, an act which made her already blushing face redden horribly.

"Can I get you anything to drink ma'am?" the hostess asked as Delsin made his way back around the table.

"Umm... Do you have lemonade?" the Faunus asked meekly.

The hostess nodded.

"Of course. I'll be right back," she said, already on the move.

And just like that, the two of them were alone at last.

"I really like this place. How did you find it?" Velvet asked.

"Funny story actually," Delsin started, "So, I was chasing this purse snatcher, right? Now, normally, I just throw out a bit of Neon, the guy goes down without much fuss. But not this guy."

"What happened?"

"So the idiot takes off, right? He's got his little escape route all mapped out and everything. He turns back to, I shit you not, stick his tongue out at me, runs headfirst into a street lamp, and knocks himself out."

"What?!" Velvet exclaimed, giggling uncontrollably.

"Seriously! It happened right over there," Delsin said, pointing out the front door, "You can see the exact spot where his forehead dented the pole."

Velvet craned around to look.

"Oh my god, you really can! That is hilarious!"

"I know right? Most criminals are idiots."

"You have any more stories?"

"Oh, I've got plenty."

O00000O00000O

Yang was waiting outside the steps of the dorm. Alex was being surprisingly secretive about his plans for their date. In fact, all she knew was that she was supposed to dress casually and he would pick her up at 8:00. With that in mind, Yang elected to wear a pair of smoke-gray jeans and an orange to gold gradient t-shirt with her symbol emblazoned on it.

Yang checked the time.

7:58.

"I hope he's not getting cold feet," she thought.

But, as luck would have it, she heard the flapping of wings. A quick look upwards and she saw him gliding towards her.

"Hey!" he shouted, waving at her.

"Took you long enough!" Yang replied playfully.

"Well excuuuse me, princess. I caught a bit of turbulence on my way here," Alex retorted, touching down in front of her, "It's not my fault the winds here change every other nanosecond."

"A likely story," Yang countered.

"It is, actually."

"Prove it, flyboy!"

Alex grinned.

"Oh, I will!"

Without another word, he scooped her up and blasted into the sky.

"You know, if you wanted me to take you flying, you could have just asked," Alex said.

"Yeah, but this was more fun," Yang replied.

"True."

"So... where are you taking me?"

"You'll see."

O00000O00000O

"-And he ends up setting himself on fire!"

"What?!"

"I mean, I put him out, but seriously, how do you mess up robbing a bank that badly?" Delsin asked her.

"Fairly easily, apparently," Velvet choked out, her laughter almost too powerful for her to speak.

"Oh, it gets better. About three minutes later the cops show up. Now me and the Police have an understanding. I catch the bad guys, they make sure it's all legit. So they pull up right up next to me, and I'm sitting on this idiot -literally, by the way- and they get out of the car. I pick the idiot up off the ground and hand him over to the cops. The second I let go of him, the dude takes off running."

"Then what happened?"

Delsin pinched the bridge of his nose, a chuckle bubbling up from his throat.

"The cops look at me ask me if I'm going to do anything. I just sigh and hold up three fingers. I start a countdown and the second I close my fist, guess what happens?"

"What?"

Delsin was only barely containing his laughter.

"Dude runs and slips on an honest to god banana peel!"

"You have got to be kidding! There's no way that's true," she exclaimed.

"Oh, you doubt me? Here, I can prove it," Delsin told her, getting out his Scroll, "I had the Police Department send me the footage, so I have the whole thing on tape."

He held the Scroll out and let it play. Sure enough, there it was, clear as day: a criminal tripping on a banana peel. Velvet burst out laughing.

"How in the world! Things like that don't happen outside of comic books!"

"Oh really? You say that knowing full well that we both have actual superpowers. On top of that, the video I just showed you was me using my powers to fight crime, just like a superhero. I even have a code name! It's a stupid code name that I wish I could change, but hey! Face it Vel, we are living in a comic book."

"Oh my god, we totally are, aren't we?"

"I know right? It's incredible."

Velvet leaned back in her seat, her chest heaving from all of the laughter this evening had brought.

"You ok over there?" Delsin asked.

"I'm fine," she replied, waving him off, "Just a bit winded. You sure do know how to make a girl laugh."

"Well, it's nice to see my mom's advice wasn't wrong," he said.

"What?"

Delsin smiled.

"When I was a little kid, I had a crush on a girl in my class. Andrea. And when my mom found out about it, she told me that the best way to get a girl's attention is to make her laugh."

"And did you?"

"Well, I tried. See, little Delsin wasn't all that funny. Well, he was, but he was more someone to laugh at than someone who could make you laugh."

"Oh, so nothing's changed then."

Delsin almost said "yes" before he caught Velvet's grin.

"Well played," he said.

"Thank you. Now finish the story."

"Well, 10 year old me with his greasy mop of hair and arms about 4 inches too long for his body, did his best to try and make Andrea laugh. But no matter how hard I tried, I always managed to end up as the butt of my own joke."

After more failed attempts than I care to even count, let alone admit, my brother Reggie threw me a bone. He told me that if I could only ever manage to make people laugh at me, then that's what I should do."

Now, that may seem like him just being a dick, but I'll be damned if it wasn't some of the best advice he could have given me. So, I leaned into it. I started making jokes that purposely drew attention to myself. I became the class clown."

"And did it ever work? Did you get Andrea to laugh?"

"Nah, she moved away later that same year," Delsin said, "But it did work on everyone else though. I'd been bullied a lot until then, but when I started doing their job for them, they kinda just stopped. And I got pretty good at it too. By the time I went to high school, I didn't even have to use myself as part of my material. All thanks to mom."

"Well, your mother sounds like a very wise woman," Velvet said.

A sad smile crept onto Delsin's face.

"Yeah. She was."

Velvet caught it.

"Oh. Oh, Delsin, I'm so sorry."

"It's ok, Vel. It happened a long time ago, and I spent a lot of time coming to terms with my parent's death. You have nothing to apologize for."

A silence fell over the two of them as memories dripped back into his mind. But when Velvet reached over and took his hand, they all fell away.

"Thanks," he said quietly, "Anyway, enough about me. You know practically my whole life's story, and I know next to nothing about you. So where are you from? Any brothers or sisters?"

She leaned back in her seat.

"Oh boy, where to even start. Well, there's a small coastal village about 30 miles south of here called Cliffewatch. Lots of fishing, lovely beach with water that's always warm from some naturally occurring Fire Dust in the area, caves to explore, and some really nice people. Others are... not so nice, but even still the place is great. And the village is facing just the right way that every sunset is right in front of us, the light refracting perfectly off of the waves. That's where I'm from."

"Sounds amazing," Delsin said.

"It was."

"So why'd you leave? Tired of the small-town life?"

"Oh no, I loved it there. Once I've graduated Beacon and had a few adventures, I'm probably going to move back there as a resident Huntress," she told him, "As for why I left, well... that's a bit complicated."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. See, I'm the middle child. Of 9 siblings."

Delsin nearly choked on his water.

"Nine?!"

"Uh-huh. What, you thought these things were just for show?" she said, pointing at her ears.

He couldn't help it. The second Velvet finished her joke, Delsin collapsed onto the table in laughter. It wasn't long before Velvet joined him.

"Oh, God. Velvet, warn me next time."

"Well what's the fun in that?" she asks innocently.

"How about a date that's still alive?!"

"Well... ok, when you put it like that, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks," Delsin replied, "Now finish."

"Not really much left to tell. I was the middle child, and while my parents were lovely people, they had their hands full with the little ones, and they had a farm to run. I left because I was just... in the way. I like animals, but I'm no farmer, and Huntsmen and Huntresses are always needed. So I decided to make a place for myself rather than wait for one to open up."

"I like that," Delsin said, "Kinda makes me wish I'd done more back home."

"Oh, like being the hero of the city was so bad."

"Nah, that part was pretty sweet. Fame, Fortune," he said, before throwing a humored look at Velvet, "Pretty girls throwing themselves at you."

Velvet quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Are you trying to make me jealous?" she asked.

"Is it working?"

"No. Because I know you're lying through your teeth."

He chuckled.

"Yeah, I am. I mean, there were a few, but I didn't really have the time for any of it. Being the leader of a revolution and trying to keep the city from burning to the ground, kind of swept my life away. It's nice to be here and not have to worry about it as much. Sure Remnant has its dangers, but it's not just me that has to handle them."

Velvet smiled, "True. Though you certainly have a few advantages."

"Also true."

"So what was bad about it?"

"Well, nothing was really bad per se. It was more like, I never felt like I had earned anything. The funny thing about being the class clown, it gets hard to be taken seriously, even after you graduate. So after a while, I gave up and leaned into being the town delinquent. I got my powers by a complete accident after my brother nearly arrested me for tagging a sign congratulating him on becoming Sheriff. "And yeah, once I got 'em I turned around, but I still owe most of my accomplishments to the people around me. But sometimes I think about what I would've done if I never got my powers. Would I have done anything? I honestly don't know."

Velvet reached across the table to hold his hand.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing you came here isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, "Yeah it is."

O00000O00000O

"So where are you taking me?" Yang asked above the roar of the wind.

"You'll see."

"Come on," Yang groaned, playfully shoving him, "Tell me already!"

"Nope, I'm not gonna spoil the surprise!"

"Ugh!"

"Will you stop being so dramatic?" Alex said through a fit of giggles.

"You're one to talk! I've seen you fight, remember?"

"Oh, shut up!" he said as they devolved into laughter, "Besides, we're almost there."

"Finally!"

Alex shook his head as he carefully touched down.

"We're here."

When she finally saw where Alex had taken her, Yang couldn't help but laugh.

"Really? The Vale Arcade?" she asked.

"Yup. I admit I had to ask Ruby for help with this one. After I bought her a truly obscene number of cookies, she told me that you two would drag your poor father here every time you visited the mainland."

"Cheater!" she said, shoving him playfully, "That's not fair, bribing my sister for insider information!"

"Oh, like you're really going to complain?"

Yang just smiled at him.

"No, I'm gonna do better. I'm gonna kick your ass at House of the Dead!"

"Bring it on Goldilocks!"

Smiling like a pair of idiots, the duo made their way inside. The smell of concession stand popcorn and Pizza washed over them as they walked through the door and up to the counter.

"Ah!" Yang sighed, deeply inhaling the nostalgic scent, "It's been too long."

"Really? I'd have thought that since you moved here, you'd come more often."

"I tried to for a while, but when Ruby got into Beacon early, I wanted to be there for her. I still came out on occasion, just not as much as I was planning," she explained.

"Well, it's ours for the night. We can play to our hearts' content."

"Yeah, except for the lines. This place was pretty popular last time I- what?"

Alex was grinning ear to ear.

"Yang, look around."

Quirking an eyebrow, Yang looked over her shoulder.

"Huh?"

As she looked over the Arcade, Yang finally noticed that the two of them were the only ones there. They were alone.

"How did you-"

"I told you this place is ours for the night," he said with a smug grin, jingling a set of keys in her face.

Yang's jaw dropped.

"Here, let me help you with that," Alex said as he closed it for her, chuckling.

"Well, I have to hand it to you," she said, her voice returning, "You really know how to make a night memorable."

"Glad you think so. Now," he said, holding out a hand and dropping his voice a few octaves to really ham it up, "Shall we begin?"

Yang smiled.

"Yes, I believe we shall."

O00000O00000O

Cole had taken to sleeping in the Thunderdome since his rescue. After spending 7 years in a cage, he wasn't exactly anxious to be indoors anytime soon.

But tonight it seemed, he wasn't alone.

He heard the massive arena doors creak open as a woman walked in. She wore exercise clothes: a pair of yoga pants and a sports bra. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail.

Cole didn't know who she was, but he couldn't help but watch as the beautiful woman made her way to the center of the Thunderdome. Moments later, holo-targets appeared around her.

"Commence training exercise," he heard her say.

"3...2...1...Start!" the arena announcer said.

The woman drew her arm back. Wisps of cold wind began to seep out of it. When she snapped her arm forward a barrage of icicles leaped forth, crashing into the targets. But from where Cole was sitting, he saw a myriad of problems.

First, her aim was atrocious. Of the over 20 icicles she threw, only seven actually managed to hit a target. To be fair, there was something to be said for quantity over quality. Cole was more than a little familiar with that, as is often the case with people who have been on the receiving end of multiple shotgun blasts. However, as she tried again and again, her aim didn't seem to be improving, averaging seven out of twenty each time. And what was worse, after four tries she had to stop and refuel.

"Well," Cole thought, "I've got nothing better to do."

O00000O00000O

As she missed with yet another volley, Glynda Goodwitch growled loudly.

"Dammit! How is it that I have been doing nothing but training almost non-stop for the past WEEK and yet I cannot control this power any better than the day I got it?!" she thought.

"Need a little help?"

Glynda turned to see Cole standing just behind her.

"Mr. MacGrath. What are you doing here?" she asked.

Cole shrugged.

"I like it here. Kinda missed the sky, y'know?"

Glynda nodded.

"I see. Well, I apologize for disturbing you."

"Nah, you're fine, I was really just kinda sittin' here," he told her, "So, you want my help Ms...uh..."

Glynda rolled her eyes, a playful smile on her face.

"Glynda. Glynda Goodwitch."

"Alright, you want help Ms. Glynda Glynda Goodwitch?"

"No it's just-" she started.

She saw the grin on his face.
"Cute," she said, "but you'll have to try harder than that."

Cole's grin widened.

"Is that a challenge?"

Glynda covered her face with her hand.

"Oh please no."

"Oh it's too late for that," he said, "You got me going now."

Glynda paled.

"Come on Glynda, we've got work to do. And I've got a seven-year backlog of bad jokes to tell."

Glynda groaned, but a smile still crept onto her face as the two got to work.

O00000O00000O

With dinner behind them, Delsin and Velvet decided to walk back to the shuttle station. It was a clear night with a cool breeze, after all, no sense in wasting it.

"This was fun," Velvet said, her arm laced through Delsin's.

"Yes, it was. And I look forward to doing it again."

"Me too."

Something across the street caught Delsin's eye, and he grinned.

"Hey, you want dessert?"

"Hm?"

"Come on," Delsin said, smiling as he playfully lead her along.

When Velvet saw where Delsin was leading them, she giggled.

"Really Delsin? An ice cream truck? What are you, five?"

"Only mentally," Delsin replied as he walked up to the counter.

"Well good evening young man," said the friendly woman behind the counter, "How can I help you?"

"Can I get a scoop of Rocky Road please?"

"Sure can! Anything for you miss?"

Velvet sighed in defeat.

"Do you have Mint-Chocolate Chip?"

"We sure do," she said with a smile, "Coming right up."

It didn't take long for the ice cream to arrive, and the pair took a seat on a bench not far from the ice cream truck.

Even now late at night, the city was still fairly busy. To the people of Vale's credit, they were certainly adaptable to change. While the Blast had decimated a huge portion of the city, leaving thousands dead, homeless, or injured, the citizens just kept on going. A memorial had been built to honor those lost in the battle, and a public service had been held. But once it was done, the people went back to their lives, intent on living them the best they could.

It was truly remarkable.

"You know, something I still find incredible?"

"What?"

"How different the stars are here," Delsin said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. When I was a kid, I used to love looking up at the stars every night. The thought of what could be out there, it always just... exhilarated me. It was a big part of what got me into art, trying to capture what I saw in my head."

Velvet smiled.

"Do you miss it? Your sky?"

"A bit. I made some good memories under that night sky," he said, lightly bumping her as he waggled his eyebrows, "If you know what I mean."

Velvet turned pink.

"Delsin!" she said.

He couldn't help but giggle. She was just so adorable when she was flustered. Not that she wasn't adorable anyway, but embarrassed Velvet was just so innocent and pure that it was impossible not to like her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close as she fought down the color in her cheeks.

"That's mean," she whispered.

"I'm sorry," he said, smiling brightly, "You just set me up so perfectly."

She turned her head away from him slightly, shaking her head as she smiled.

"You are incorrigible," she said.

"I don't know the meaning of the word."

And so they sat, staring up at the sky without a care in the world.

CHAPTER END

So. It's been a while, huh? Can't promise regular updates, and won't pretend to. But you get this at least.