Silvia is sitting at her mirror, carefully pushing the black studded earring through the hole in her earlobe. She takes a small clip and attaches it to the back. Her hair immediately folds over her ears in small curls.Azure looks through his closet. Hm blue shirt blue shirt blue shirt. Oh holy blue shirt. Blue shirt. "I think I'll wear a blue shirt." He mutters to himself grabbing one and putting it on. Then he grabs his newly washed jacket and throws it on as well. Then he glances at his weapons. After hesitating for a moment he grabs his watch so he can call any weapons he needs and two knives. He puts the knives into the insides of his boots in special little holsters. He looks at himself in the mirror. "Looks good then."Silvia reaches across and retrieves her charm bracelet, which can transform into her bow and arrows. Knowing her and Azure, who knows if an enemy would come and ruin the date. If she could even call this a date. She links it around her left wrist and double checks herself in the mirror.Azure groaned. What was he thinking? He knew their history. Offering to take Silvia on this date like thing was just asking for trouble. They'd been through this, to many times. And here he was doing it again. He needed to proceed carefully.Silvia sighed and headed to her closet. Her mind started to wander as she pulled out a pair of black heels. They were just going as friends. Nothing more, and nothing less. She can't push anything, like she has in the past.Azure shook his head. He needed to remember to be his "normal" joking self. It's what she'll expect. He glances at a piece of paper on his table. Then shakes his head again and walks towards his door.
Silvia turns back to her mirror, an inch or two taller than her usual height. She forgot what it was like to dress up and actually have fun. At least, that's what she hoped tonight would include. She grabs her keys and tucks them inside her clutch as she waits for Azure.
Azure walks down the street to her place. He walks up and knocks on her door. She walks over and opens the door.
"Glad to see you made it at 7 sharp." Azure leans in the door."Well of course, what else do you expect?" He asks smiling."Besides deadly precision, not much," she replies with a smirk. Azure shrugs"Can't argue with that. Let's go?""Sure." She steps out and closes the door behind her. "Now I figured we'd go get some dinner first.""Sounds like the logical thing to do. Got a place in mind?" She asks, glancing at him.
"Yea there's this nice little place down the street that away. Has good spaghetti.""I think I can smell it from here. That, or my hunger is just making me imagine things."
"Ha maybe a little of both." He says walking backwards so he can talk facing her. Her eyes look over him a bit before meeting his eyes, eyebrow raised. "Aren't you concerned you might trip over something?""Nah. I do this all the time.""The fact I'm only noticing this now says something.""Ha about what?""About me, I guess. Caught up in my own world to notice small things. For example, you walking backwards." She motions to him at the last bit."In your defense we don't do a lot of just casual walking. Mostly running around fighting." She shrugged slightly."You have a fair point."
"Of course. Ah here we are." They we're at a little Italian place.
"After all these years, you think I would have at least checked out this place once." Azure glanced at it. He remembered watching it burn. All of this. But that was another world. This place is fine now.
"Well nows your chance." Silvia opens the door and holds it for Azure. "Ladies first." He walks in smirking at her over his shoulder
"Thanks." She rolls her eyes, unable to push back the smirk that appears on her mouth as she walks in, the door shutting behind her. Azure stands talking to a waiter getting seats for them. She walks next to him, holding her clutch in front of her body. The waiter nods and grabs two menus. He motions for them to follow as he leads off. The two of them sit down facing each other. Azure looks around at the other people eating. A candle sits between them, illuminating both of their faces in the warm glow. "Nice decor.""Yea. It's nice isn't it. I like it.""You've been here before?""A few times yea.""What do you recommend?" She asks, unfolding her menu." Well like I said, the spaghetti is great. Though I think this time I'll try the chicken fettuccine." Silvia flips to the page where that is and reads over the description.
"That does look good. But I'll go with your recommendation." Azure smiles. He should say something. But he's pulling up a blank. How atypical for him. The waiter comes over and takes their orders. He also asks for drink orders.
"Iced tea, please.""Oh um. Just water please." He nods and walks away with the orders.
"Simple order.""Eh water is fine. Maybe I'll get something more later." There's a pause then Azure finally speaks up. "How've you been."
"Oh pretty good. Still kind of recovering from the whole universe jumping thing." She replies.
"Ah yes. That was something else alright." It makes since it's still bothering her. That was horrible in many ways, especially for her.
"Like, I still stayed with my tribe? With Gaea?" She laughs shortly. "I was living my worst nightmare.""Well not the worst. But pretty damn bad yea.""What do you mean not the worst?""At least you were alive weren't you?"She hesitates for a second. "Yeah."
"I consider that at least slightly better then. Don't you?" "You're right." She meets his eyes. The waiter comes with their drinks. "Thank you." She takes the straw and sticks it in, immediately taking a sip of the tea. Azure takes his water and does the same. Drinking slowly. She sets her drink down. She tries to bring up a topic to delay the awkward silence between them, but nothing comes to mind.
"Heard anything from anyone recently?" Azure blurts out.
"Is Paige a good answer?""I guess, but I did mean people wise," he said smiling. She returns the smile.
"Not really. Aulora stopped in the one day. We hung out for a bit, but it was weird, since I don't know her that well."
"Mm yes. I suppose they aren't my biggest fans."
"I think Aulora still likes you. She seems like a forgiving person."
"Well that's one of them." Azure says.
"What about you?"
"Oh I saw Viridian the other day, playing with his cards or whatever."
A few minutes pass and the waiter brings them there food. Silvia thanks the waiter as she unwraps her silverware.
"Can you pass me the parmesan cheese?" Azure picks it up and gives it to her.
"Here you go."
"Thanks." She moves for it, their fingers brushing lightly. Panicking, she takes it out of his hands and shakes it quickly over her pasta. "this is really good," she says after swallowing.
"Told you didn't I?"
"Proving yourself right once again."
"Always." He said smiling. She smiles back, going back to her dinner. She slurps up a piece of loose spaghetti. Chuckles slightly and continues eating. He glances around the room again watching everyone. She chuckles softly and finishes up her spaghetti, getting some sauce around her mouth. "Oh god, that was good.""Big time. You want dessert?""I'm pretty full..." she rubs her stomach, pausing. "But I always have room for dessert.""Same. What do you want?""What do they have?""Mm a few kinds of ice cream and chocolate cakes."She props herself up. "Did you just say chocolate cake?" He smiles
"I did."
"You just sold me."
"That didn't take much."
"It's chocolate, man. It's my weakness."
"Ditto.""You want to share a slice, or should we get separate ones?""Why don't we share. A bit full remember."She nods. "Good point." The waiter comes and takes their plates, as well as taking their order for dessert. Azure glances at his empty water cup.
"Hey I need to use the restroom. I'll be right back."
"Alright." She says, taking a sip of her iced tea. Azure stands and goes to the back area where the bathroom is, instead of going into the bathroom though he ducks out the back exit. Hidden in the shadows he sees the glint of something on a roof top. He'd been watching it all night. He carefully pulls out a knife and throws it. The glint disappears and he hears the knife dropping to the floor. He runs towards to building and jumps from ledge to ledge getting to the the top. A person on a green hood and sniper rifle stand there. "Who are you?"
Silvia waits patiently, but it wanes. She pulls out her phone from her clutch. It's been 10 minutes. The waiter brings their slice of cake. Once he leaves, Silvia gets up and uses her semblance to sneak into the guy's bathroom. No one is in there. She leaves, disappointed. Was it something she did?
"Ah so you saw me. I should've known you would.""Who are you?" Azure asked again pressing a button on his watch."Our world doesn't take kindly to visitors. I'm here to arrest you for trespassing into our world." Azures eyes widen. He should've known, the last place he'd visited didn't take kindly to his being there at all. And somehow they all knew he wasn't from their planet. Even a small child. The man raised his rifle and pointed it Azure."You're coming with me."
Silvia passes the back door on the way back to her seat, but pauses when she hears voices. She presses her ear to the door, recognizing one as Azure. She uses her semblance to slip out of the door.
"Yea see I don't really want to.""You don't have much choice in the matter." The man said firing. However just then a pod crashed down between them. It popped open and Azure grabbed out the contents. A long one handed double edged sword and a perfectly round shield. He jumped over the pod and blocked the next few shots with his shield.
Silvia hears the pod crash down and climbs up the side railing, until she gets to the top. She yanks her charm bracelet off, the bow and arrow forming in her hand. She launches a shot at the green hooded man. The man catches the arrow without looking focusing his attention solely on Azure whom he fires at again. Azure jumps over the man spinning in mid air and blocks the shots. When Azure lands the man's sniper rifle had shifted into a wickedly curved sword. He swings at Azure who blocks it with his shield and stabs at the man's stomach stomach. The man stops the blade by making a small green shield, just like Azure's semblance. While the man is distracted, Silvia launches another arrow, this time with an explosive tip. He creates another glowing shield. Azure and him continue to fight. The two are moving incredibly fast covering most of the roof slashing back and forth. The man flips over Azure who blocks the mans attempt at an overhead strike. Then he lands crouched and tries to cut his feet out from under Azure. However Azure jumps and kicks the man in the face. He rolls back and catches Azure's next slash. Silvia groans. If only she had her sword. Sadly, it doesn't go with the outfit.
"You good?" Azure rolls to her side. "Yea. But this guy. He-" Azure was interrupted by the man attacking again forcing Azure on the defensive for a moment before he was able to counter attack.
"He's what?" She asked, shooting another arrow at his feet. The man was forced back by the arrow. "He's not from here!" Azure shouted pressing his advantage and jumping over the man slashing at his head as he goes. The man blocks and counter strikes which Azure catches between his shield and sword. Twisting the sword is knocked out the man's hand. Azure kicks the man in the stomach and he stumbles back.
"Then where is he from?" She charges forward, swinging her bow into the guy's face. He rolls back and holds out his hand behind him, a portal opens up behind him and swallows him. Azure looks around.
"Be sharp he can come from anywhere." Her eyes narrow as she scans the area.
"That portal... is he from another world?" Her hands tighten their grip on her bow.
"Yes. He's from a world where planet hopping is well known. However it's outlawed. They don't take kindly to strangers either."
"So I guess we're in trouble for world hopping?"
"Ah well you aren't."
"I was the one who cast the spell. I should be in trouble."
"Well." He glances at her. "He isn't from the planets you visited."
"Then why is he here?" She looks over him. "Did you do something?"
"Ehhh. Maybe." Silvia's face drops, immediately replaced by anger. "Azure. How the hell did you learn that spell?"
"I kinda, took it."
"You what?!" She exclaims before walking away to collect a breath. She slings the bow over her shoulder before walking back over to him. Her face is slightly red from forcing back her anger. "How many times have you used it?"
"Once or twice. Or 10. I'm mapping them so I can learn how choices can affect our lives."
"You are also running the risk of getting stuck and not finding your way back."
"Well after visiting his world that's less of a risk. I uh stole some tech that helps me jump." A small laugh escapes Silvia's mouth, almost mocking.
"Of course you did. Great. Now we have someone else to worry about."
"I needed to know okay." She pauses for a second. She flashes back to the days when she lived in her home village, to the nights where she went with no sleep because of spells that caught her eye. She couldn't rest without having to know what they could do or if she could cast it. She sighs.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Now he'll be back. Not until he catches me or dies."
"He'll have to get pass my dead body if he wants to get to you." Silvia's voice cold and serious, as she looks out at where the portal appeared. Only when she realizes what she said does she look at Azure. Azure smiles at her.
"Thanks. Though somehow I doubt that'll bother him to much." She shrugs, a small smile on her mouth.
"It'll bother him soon enough."
"Yea. Hey I'm sorry about all this."Azure says. Silvia holds up a hand.
"I've been dealing with you for how long?"
"You're right. Still it did mess up our dinner."Her hand lowers.
"It's fine. What do you say we take our cake to go and head to the park?"
"Yea. Yea that sounds good."She nods and converts her bow back to a bracelet. She links it around her wrist before climbing back down the roof.
Azure places his sword and shield back into the pod and presses a few buttons. It takes off back to his place. She gets back down to ground level and waits for Azure who lands next to her.
"I'll go pay while you pick up the food okay?"
"Sure. You don't want me to chip in at all?"
"Nah that's okay don't worry about it."
"At least let me pay the tip." He glances over at her and pauses before saying.
"Alright if you insist."
"Thank you." She smirks and heads inside, holding the door open for him. Azure smiles as he enters and heads to the counter to pay. Silvia gets the cake to go, while she pulls out a 5-dollar bill for a tip.
Azure is waiting for her at the front. Thinking. That guy. Whoever he was was really good. Probably part of the elite squad he ran into last time he had been put the Atlas military to shame, he should know to with the amount of run ins he had had with them. He should've known they were after him, they'd mentioned something about their boss. Whoever their boss was wanted them to bring in Azure, and he had a feeling it wasn't just because he'd broken their laws. Silvia walks over, her clutch in one hand and the bag with the cake in the other. "We good?"
"Yup let's roll." She nods, both of them exiting the eatery and walking to the park. Azure glances around. The night is cold and dark. He's slightly uneasy. The streetlights, rebuilt after the recent Grimm attack, start to flash on, illuminating the walkway. The faint warmth isn't enough for a gust of cold air to send shivers down her spine.
"Vale is slowly coming back together isn't it?"
"Yeah," she replies, her arms wrapping around her upper body to keep warm. "It isn't the Vale I grew up loving, but it's getting there." Azure glances around. He'd never appreciated Vale. Or anywhere really. He was always caught up in some job.
"It can't ever go back to normal."
"Sadly." They approach the park, dimly lit by the fractured moon above.
"You know in one of the worlds I went to, the moon wasn't like that. It was amazingly different as well." Azure remarks looking up at the moon.
"What was it like?" Silvia asked.
"Well the Grimm weren't as prominent. They didn't require huntsmen and huntresses. So Beacon and Haven weren't around. It was weird."
Her face scrunches up a bit. "A world with little threats? I can't imagine living like that. Though it would sound nice."
"Well they had a tendency to fight themselves. Humans can't go on without conflict. We thrive on it." Azure frowned.
"So they take it out on each other."
"Yup." He shakes his head.
"We still do, despite the Grimm. But all we can do is hope for the best. And hope for hope." She stops as they approach a scorched part of the park. Silvia remembers this as where she defended the park from Grimm invaders, Azure looks over at Silvia
"That was something all right." She chuckles softly, looking at the field a bit longer.
"Yeah." Her smile fades as she looks at him."Thank you. For tonight. You didn't have to do this whole 'date' thing.""I suppose so. But it was fun. I'm glad we did this." He says smiling.
"Me too. Maybe we can do this again sometime."
He glances at her and smiles lightly. "Maybe. Maybe so." Her smile widens. "Yeah. Azure stands and looks around the park. "So you want to get back?"
"Sure. I'm not in a hurry though." Silvia replies.
"Same actually." Azure says. Silvia chuckles and extends her arm.
"Then let's stroll on back." The two of them stroll down the street back to her place the street dimly lit by the street lamps overhead. Azure can't get the feeling that something isn't right. Yet Silvia is to happy to bother right now. He smiles deciding to let it go.
Silvia smiles to herself, her mind flashing back to the days when the two of them were together. When the only thing between them was the constant wave of enemies. Now, it was just like that, and nothing could go wrong.
On a distant rooftop a portal opens and out steps the hooded man from before. He stands still as a statue watching them from afar. Behind him a woman steps out and the portal closes.
"So those two bested you?"
"Not quite. But it seems it'd be a poor idea to fight both of them alone."
"Why do you need to fight the girl?"
"I have no doubt that she will try and defend the male at all costs."
"Interesting. Well I suppose we have no choice then."
"No. No we don't."