"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Horror nervously.

"Positive," Vanya said, putting the finishing touches on her make-up.

She had known that it was going to be a good day when she woke up. Hargreeves had announced that there was a situation in Bosnia, both diplomatic and superhero-requiring. That was why he, Spaceboy, and Rumor would be departing in one hour's time. They would be gone for three weeks. Those remaining had to suppress grinning like maniacs at the news. Well, all except Séance who always grinned like a maniac.

Vanya had taken that as a sign that things were going to go great. At least she hoped so anyway. That was the attitude she thought about as she got dressed for the evening in the ever-so-versatile little black dress she kept for such occasions. Soon after she finished there'd been a knock on the door.

She'd answered it to reveal a rather nerve-wracked Horror who'd heard from Kraken that she'd had a date. Needless to say, explanations ensued. Horror had then, with a panic that only the truly good-natured could get, voiced his objections rather shrilly. Vanya had listened to them all patiently and was now trying to refute them.

"It's just, well, you've always told me not to trust Allison and now you're doing it," he said, still nervous, "I always thought it was alarmist but, but, you always seemed to get off well on it. And like we said earlier it seemed that things could go horribly wrong with what she said. And with things going the way they are…"

Sighing Vanya put down her mascara.

"Ben, I'm starting to wish I hadn't told you," she said, "And not for the reason you think. You're a good guy and you worry about people, maybe a little too much."

"I can't help it," he fidgeted.

"I know, which is what makes you a good guy," replied Vanya, turning to face him and giving a small smile, "But I've thought about this. At first I figured I was doing this as a jealousy prompter, and that's still a reason. But…if that doesn't work…having a boyfriend will definitely take my mind off things."

She picked up her brush and went through her hair one more time.

"I can't be chasing after Diego, not right now anyway," she said bitterly, "So, I'll just have to wait and hope like I've been doing for the last…what was it again…ten years. I'm good at that. For now though, well, it's now. Having a boyfriend's a fair to decent distraction, you know?"

"That sounds…well…well-thought out," said Horror miserably.

"Yeah, win-win right?" she said, smiling again.

"Unless he's a jerk or something," Horror said.

"I carry mace," Vanya shrugged.

"He could just make the situation worse though!" wailed Horror, "Lies and intrigue on top of lies and intrigue-"

Rubbing her temples Vanya placed a hand on Horror's shoulder.

"Listen, if I come back in tears then you can say I told you so," she soothed.

He looked up at her with his puppy-dog eyes.

"I don't think I'll want to."

Four hours later she had figured one very important thing out; listen to Horror. As things turned out she found that he'd been right about, well, everything. She should've listened to him, she really should've. However, she'd been upset and bitter and trying to move on. That was probably no excuse for her being a total shithead though.

The evening had started out fine. From the bar they'd gone to a Chinese restaurant she'd never been to before, called Wok 'n' Roll. Vanya had been planning on going Dutch, but John had insisted on paying himself before they'd even ordered. He'd then pointed out several expensive dishes since apparently he was a regular. (It was a cheesy gesture but it did smack of a fair to decent first date.)

Conversation had been rather on the light side. It was fare that Vanya had come to associate with first dates, so nothing out of the ordinary. They talked about movies they'd like to see, bands, friends, college, just the usual. (The usual boring stuff. Did he come from a catalog?) By desert they were talking about family, with Vanya avoiding any real specifics.

Of course, he was an only child and from her reading between the lines she could tell that he didn't like his parents. (Poor little rich boy.) That meant that the conversation was over rather quickly, and so was desert because they kept eating it in an attempt to avoid having to actually talk. She was grateful for the bill because then she could try to pay her half again and he could refuse. In the very least it changed the subject.

From there things started to go down rather quickly. It had started rather innocently, just an observation that it looked like it was going to rain out. Vanya hadn't brought a jacket, much less an umbrella (Ha, ha, ha) so it appeared that this could be a real problem for her. The manor was rather a good distance away and cabs were hard to hail at this time of the night.

She hadn't voiced her concerns to her date of course. Accepting car rides wasn't something she did on a first date. Somehow or another though, he'd at least gotten a clue of what she was thinking.

"You know, I can just call a car from my home," he'd said.

"That's sweet," she'd replied, "But I don't like accepting favors like that on a first date. One of my little 'first date rules', if you know what I mean."

"It wouldn't be a favor," he'd said, leaning in a little more, "If I got something in return."

Vanya could've hit something. Of course, of course things would turn out this way. While he wasn't too specific, his leer told her all she needed to know. Still, this wasn't too uncommon. She had run into this kind of situation before, and had always rather handily extricated herself out of it.

"Like I said," she'd answered, surprised at how level her voice remained, "First date rules. One of the things you don't do."

In hindsight perhaps she shouldn't have said it with the 'so there' tone. However, she hadn't been thinking about that. He'd looked like quite the polished little rich boy and she hadn't expected the words that came next;

"Excuse me?"

"Did you somehow not hear that?" she said, her usual response.

"No, apparently I heard right," he'd answered coolly.

The conversation went downhill from there. For the first few minutes the only thought in her head was that there was definitely not going to be a second date. When she tried to walk away though and he grabbed her arm, that was when she started to get just a little scared.

"Let, the fuck go," she said, knowing that there'd be bruises soon.

"And if I say no?"

That had her thinking about the mace in her pocket. In fact, she had already gotten her free hand wrapped around it. Vanya turned, calculating the amount of blowback she could expect and where the best place would be to aim for. Just when she was about to take it out the very last thing she'd expected to happen occurred.