Chapter 3 - Date

Well… Here we are. My first 'date' with this girl… Or so I would have called it if it weren't for the fact that she was slurping away at a delicious-looking bowl of noodles while I am left with some water.

Clever girl. 'Drinks are on me' she said. Drinks are on me, my ass. Water's free here. Don't order water for someone else when you promise to get them a drink!

One sigh later, I look up from her half-empty bowl of food. We're in your run of the mill ramen restaurant. Red lanterns with some Japanese… things on them. One large wooden bar for customers to sit at with the sole owner behind it. And to top it all off, the delicious aroma of mouth watering ramen that fills the air in this place… Just being here is making me hungry.

The place is empty, safe for the three of us: me, the Vampire girl and the owner.

"So. Enjoying the food?" I ask, trying to spark some sort of conversation.

She's in the middle of slurping up numerous strands of noodles. With a gulp, she looks back at me as the all have disappeared in that black hole of hers. Does she even chew?

"Mm. Yeah, it's alright. Food tastes better with friends, huh?"

She stares at me before shooting a look at my sorry glass. With a light chuckle, she goes back to eating.

Sure. Laugh it up while you can. Joke's on you! I didn't want any booze anyway…

With a dry tone I state "Too bad none of them are here."

When she's done slurping, she retorts "Whatever. Food tastes better with the money of others. There. Happy now?"

"I don't think anything you say is going to make me happy, Vampy."

Mid-bite, she stops. "Will you just stop calling me that? I got a name, y'know."

"Really?" I sarcastically ask, leaning forward with a raised eyebrow. "Huh. Could've had me fooled… Vampy."

"Oh. So you wanna play like that?" She drops her fork into her bowl and lazily points at me. "Two can play that game, Baby-face… No. Scratch that. B-Face. That's what I'm gonna call you!"

B-Face? I get that is alludes to 'Baby-Faced dolt' again, but… It actually has a nice ring to it. If anything, I kind of like it.

Of course, if she knew that, she'll find something more humiliating or irritating to call me by, so I decide to chime along.

"Please don't call me B-Face," I retort, trying to show as much dislike for the nickname as possible.

The trap set, Vampy walked straight into it and was never any the wiser. She grins and leans back into her seat with one arm resting over the back. "Sucks, doesn't it? Too bad. That's who you are to me now."

I roll my eyes and shake my head. "Vampy…" I quietly mock.

"B-Face."

There's a bit of an awkward pause between us—the silence was only broken by the rather generic Japanese music quietly playing in the background. My eyes divert down to her bowl of mostly finished food. There's still at least five bites left.

"Are you going to finish that?" I ask with a careful tone.

After blinking her eyes twice, she looks down at her food, then back to me. With a tisk, she shoved the bowl to my end of the bar.

Who knew. Vampy here knows how to share. Next she'll tell me she actually has a soul… Okay. Less mocking. More showing gratitude.

"Thanks…" I say with a clear voice, picking the fork from the bowl. It's a bit sticky… Either she has very sweaty hands or she accidentally dropped it in the bowl when I wasn't looking.

After half a bite, I learn it was the former. This stuff is spicy! I grunt lightly and suck cold air through the corner of my mouth. Hot! Hot!

Somehow, I retain my stoic expression… but I can feel a fine layer of sweat forming over my brow and on the back of my neck.

Vampy is clueless of my pain. She speaks in a light, but somewhat bothered tone. "So this is what it came down to. We're gonna keep calling each other those nicknames until one of us caves in and tells the other their name."

I take another bite from the spicy bowl of noodles and barely take notice of what she tells me. I just nod and smile. Nod and smile… Nod… Smile… Nod… Water… Need water…

With a tisk, she continues. "Whatever… You holding it together there, B-Face? Your face is all red and… Wait. Are you crying?" Her grin evident, she glances at me with a side-eye.

"D-Dunno what you're… t-talking 'bout va-... Ahem… Vampy…"

"Oh, I think you do. Getting too hot for you, light weight?"

Grunting audibly, I shove the bowl back to her. "Shut up," I utter before chugging some water. I let the coolness swirl in my mouth for a moment before gulping it down. Ugh. That didn't help much… "Not all of us love spicy food, alright?"

Before I know it, my glass runs dry and I have to ask for a second. Is it me or are both Vampy and the owner judging me?

Feeling the cold sense of awkwardness in the air, I come to realise it's the latter. Perhaps now's a good time as ever to change the subject.

"So how'd you end up in a back alley selling stolen wares for a living?" I bring up. It's actually something I've been thinking about ever since we walked away from that stall. No one goes out of their way to become a criminal because they want to, right?

Her piercing red eyes meet my hazel eyes and shoot them a gaze equal to that of a wolf.

"What did I just tell you not even an hour ago?"

"Not to ask where you're going to spend your money?"

Her silent gaze tells me to just stop. Yeah… Alright. Probably a poor call to ask about someone's backstory if they clearly are in some pretty shitty life…

I gaze down with clicking my tongue. "Nah. Never mind… Forget I asked."

A short pause follows as I sip from my water again.

In a quiet voice she asks me "What about you then? How'd you end up buying off the black market with no real money to spare?"

A simple question with a simple answer. "Dropout," I state with no hesitation. "Just messed up thrice and then decided to drop it. Working as a waiter in your some random restaurant."

"A dropout, huh?" She repeats, inspecting me again. I'm not sure how my appearance is going to change with what I just told her. Good lord, I feel like she's staring at me like I'm the scum of the nation.

"You can stop staring now," I state sternly.

Her eyes shoot the other way. "Tsk. Whatever, man... I guess you wanna hear 'bout me now…"

In all honesty? Not really… but I might as well humour her and see what kind of dark and edgy backstory Vampy can think of.

I shrug and gesture for her to continue. "I'm listening."

That defiant look had been replaced by one of discomfort. She rested her arm on the table and used her free hand to stir the remains of her spicy noodles with her fork. Anyone could tell that she was recalling some bad memories.

"Let's just say I got involved with some bad people. And the bad people got CPU'd into oblivion."

"What, you mean ASIC?" I reply jokingly, trying to lift the mood.

Her lack of response twists my laughter to regret. "Oh… I-I see…"

ASIC: Arfoire's Syndicate of International Crime. They were some big time criminals, practically ruling the criminal underworld. Then they went too far, got the attention of the CPUs and-... Well. The rest is history.

That's all I know at least. Some people say the CPUs were held captive for three years. Honestly? I believe it. Why else would they hide their faces for three years?

Well… Exposition aside… It's not a big deal. How high are the chances that this girl was a top dog in there? She probably was some sort of underling...Yeah. She even looks like one.

There's a silence between us before she stands up. "I gotta go." She turns to the owner and hands him a sum of money. "Here."

As she walks away, I can faintly hear her tell me "catch you later…"

I get that she'd rather not talk about it—ASIC had a very poor reputation after all—but don't you think she's overreacting? Ah well…

Turning back to my glass, he lift it up to my lips and let the cold refreshments quench my thirst.

"Yeah… Catch you later, Vampy… See you on that cold day in hell."

Yeah... Turns out people really like this one. Go figure.

Anyway, there you go. The third chapter of this fic. Looking back, I feel like it's a bit all over the place, but I kind of like it this way. I don t intend on making these chapters too long. Does that justify me for rushing it? No, not really. But I got no other excuses.

Oh. I should probably mention that it's 100% that the saying "It will be a cold day in hell" is misused every single time in this fic, with the exception of the summary. Just something I wanted to clarify. I do know what it means... Poor Nathan does not.

Until next time!