Playing For Keeps - Ch 42 (Adv.) - Dating Start!? (Patreon)

“I’m sorry to drag you away from your friends,” Bia said again as we strolled through the lantern-lit streets. Up close, I could make out more details of her outfit. The peplos was made of red silk, with gold embroidery along the seams and the Alexandrian Lion picked out in what I was pretty sure was cloth-of-gold on the front. Lions were also the motif of the bronze brooches that held the cloth at her shoulders, and several bronze pins long enough to double as stilettos ran down the left side to hold the single piece of fabric closed.

“Don’t be.” My lips twitched into a smirk. “Besides, Neptune would’ve ditched us in a heartbeat if you’d agreed to a drink. You look amazing.”

Bia laughed. “Then I guess you’re the lucky one.”

“No doubt about it.” I smiled at her — not my usual smirk, but a genuine smile. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise, if unexpected,” she agreed. “What brings you to Mistral at this time of year?”

“Mission for my mentor,” I explained the rumors of Grimm sightings again. “We aren’t quite sure what to make of it, so I’m mostly keeping an eye out while I’m down here.”

“I’m not distracting you, am I?”

“Well, I’d be lying if I said you weren’t distracting…” I winked. “But you won’t stop me from sensing a Grimm if we come within a half-kilometer of one.”

I wasn’t lying; I’d had [Detect Grimm] active since Qrow and I had split up. It prevented me from using [Detect Aura], which was how she’d surprised me when she found me with SSN, but since I only knew the Aura of a few people in the city I wasn’t too worried. I still pulsed it occasionally, hoping I’d recognize Lionheart’s Aura if I felt it, but so far Bia was the only familiar soul I’d found.

“In that case, would you like to have dinner?” Bia invited. “It’s traditional to enjoy drinks and poetry under plum blossom trees.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

Bia led the way to a restaurant; its door closed like most of the businesses I’d seen, but the round, red paper lantern in front of it was still illuminated and a host leapt to his feet to lead us to a small side-yard where more paper lanterns hung from the branches of several flowering plum trees.

We knelt on cushions beside a low table, Bia with considerably more grace than me, and the host bowed politely. “Thank you for joining us tonight; please enjoy your date.”

Bia gave him a polite smile before beginning to peruse her menu, and it took all the self-control I’d gained since waking up on Remnant to not laugh at the cliché. Of course it looks like we’re on a date; we’re both dressed up and sat down for a candlelit meal and drinks.

…She didn’t laugh either, though. Not even a stifled giggle.

Bia glanced up, still smiling, and asked, “Do you need a few minutes to decide what to eat?”

“Definitely,” I said, swallowing past a suddenly dry throat. “Actually, if you’d excuse me for a second?”

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Not wanting to embarrass myself, I didn’t rush as I headed to the restroom. Once inside, I locked the door and pulled out my Scroll.

DM: Paladin -› Notus | Saturday 21:27

‹Paladin› help, I think I’m on a date

‹Notus› What do you mean you ‘think’?

‹Paladin› I bumped into Bia, my sister’s Specialist partner, in Mistral. I stayed with her in Atlas before, we became lifting buddies, we danced and there was some flirting. this was before I met you obviously

‹Notus› So what happened tonight?

‹Paladin› when I saw her in the parade I mimed for her to call me. we met up and I picked up where I left off, complimenting her outfit for the festival, etc., now we’re grabbing dinner and the waiter wished us a nice date and she didn’t deny it and I realized she’s been treating it like one

‹Notus› Still sweet and a bit dense, honey :)

‹Paladin› texted you as soon as I realized

‹Paladin› sorry

‹Notus› Jaune, calm down. You’re working yourself up when this isn’t a big deal. We obviously need to talk about this, but I’m not angry. Now quit texting me, you’re being a bad date.

‹Paladin› …are you sure?

‹Notus› Yes, I’m sure. Relax, and make sure you both have a good time. She deserves a proper date :)

I took a deep breath. Yeah, okay, I can do that.

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“Is everything all right?” Bia asked as I sat back down.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I said vaguely. Picking up my cup of the umeshu she’d ordered while I was gone, I gave her a smile. “You have my full attention, now.”

Her smile widened as she brushed some hair behind her ear, and I mentally kicked myself for not realizing sooner that my casual flirting was actually being accepted and reciprocated.

“What do you recommend?” I asked, glancing at the menu again and cuffing back my sleeves to just below the elbow. There were dishes of olives and edamame on the table when we sat down, but the menu had several more options.

“I’m always a fan of karaage, but the dolmades here are excellent.”

“Throw in some sashimi and I’m sold,” I said, setting the menu down and looking up to catch our waiter’s attention. Once I told him what we wanted, I turned back to Bia and found her looking bemused. “…I hope I didn’t overstep in ordering for you?”

“I was surprised, not upset,” she replied. “Winter does the same thing.”

“I’d have pulled your chair out for you, too, if this wasn’t an Animan restaurant,” I joked, glad she wasn’t offended. “You said the tradition is drinks and poetry?”

She nodded over to a small stage, where an elderly Animan monkey faunus was lowering a microphone so he could speak into it. He was holding a cue card, but didn’t bother to look at it, instead fixing his gaze on the flowers illuminated from beneath by the lanterns.

We both picked up our glasses as he spoke, his voice soft but not creaky, in what I thought might be Japanese. “Haru moya ya / keshiki totonou / tsuki to ume.” After pausing, he nodded to himself and went on, “In the Common tongue, ‘The Spring mist rises / The perfect combination: / Moon and plum blossom.’”

There was a scattering of polite applause, which Bia and I joined. “Something tells me some of the subtleties are lost in translation,” I murmured.

“They always are,” Bia agreed. “But I don’t speak any of the old Animan languages, so I appreciate hearing it in Common.”

“I caught a couple words, but I only know them in isolation so I’m still guessing on the relation between them.” I took another sip of plum wine, then set it back down.

The recital continued, but my attention was captured by Bia. Her green eyes were almost sparkling in the lantern-light, and I found myself drinking in her profile. Her skin was flawless, which I’d come to expect from Hunters — having an active Aura provided a degree of self-idealization, which helped preserve tattoos and hair dye and tended to clear up acne and small blemishes that weren’t technically ‘wounds’ — but even beyond that she had a face worthy of a model, with a straight nose, high cheekbones, and full lips. Not to mention the sleeveless nature of her traditional dress which emphasized her broad shoulders and allowed her collarbones to peek out fetchingly, even without revealing any overt cleavage. From her seated position, the dress was slightly strained around the pins holding it closed, not so much that I worried it would tear, but enough to give a few tantalizing peeks at what looked like a thin shift underneath.

She turned back to me, arching an eyebrow, and I realized I’d been staring. I flushed, but didn’t look away. Instead, I smiled, which she returned, and kept meeting her gaze until her cheeks also reddened a little. Fortunately, the round of food we’d ordered arrived just then, and we both started eating.

“So what brings you home?” I asked, deciding to get conversation going again.

“Uncle Anicetus asked me to participate in the parade, hence this getup.”

“I said it before, but it looks great on you. Your lifting is paying off really well.”

“I could say the same,” she replied, her own gaze trailing over my shoulders and down to my forearms.

“What can I say, I was motivated to catch up to my lifting buddy.” I winked. “I wanted to be able to spot you the next time our paths crossed.

“You’ve made fantastic progress,” she replied. “I’m actually a little jealous how quickly you caught up to my PB. And then kept going.”

“I think you’re more impressive for it,” I demurred. “My Semblance is pretty much made for it, constantly repairing muscle tears and eliminating the need for rest days, and it lets me use more of my strength than I could safely otherwise.”

I wasn’t just being modest, either. My current unmodified STR was 100, which should only have allowed me to lift about 500 kg, but I had so many passive boosts to STR that it was permanently above 200, bringing my lifting capacity over a tonne without any other skills.

“Meanwhile, I heard from Pyrrha that you have to specifically stop your Semblance from kicking in,” I added.

“That’s true,” she allowed. “It would completely ruin the workout if I didn’t stop it, which took me a while to realize when I was starting out.”

She didn’t elaborate on her Semblance, which Sienna had told me was standard practice for Specialists. Sie had explained her own Semblance to me anyway, since we were family, but it meant I knew not to ask Bia about hers since she didn’t volunteer it.

“How are the dolmades?” I asked instead, since she’d just eaten one.

“Why don’t you try them?” she offered, picking one up with her chopsticks and holding it out for me, much to my surprise.

I could have held up my plate for her to deposit it, but instead I locked eyes with her again, leaned forward, and let her feed it to me. I’d tried Mistrali dolmades before, at the dinner Grandma had thrown the first time I was here. Well, the first time I can remember, anyway. Like then, the filling wasn’t what I would call Greek, as those were usually — though not always — vegetarian with the most prominent flavors being lemon, dill, and mint. Instead, these were a mix of pork, shrimp, and shiitake mushroom that I would have expected to come in shumai. The grape vine leaves lent it a different texture than the dumpling wrapper I was used to, but it was still pretty good.

I chewed slowly, smiling with my eyes, and swallowed. “I liked that a lot. Would you like some sashimi?” I offered, holding up a thin slice of salmon the same way.

We kept conversation light the rest of the evening, both enjoying more small plates and a few more glasses of wine as a couple other poets took their turns on stage. When the clock chimed the hour, our waiter brought the check, which I paid without looking at and got to my feet, extending a hand to Bia.

She took it, and after pulling her to her feet I laced my fingers with hers. “May I walk you home?” I offered.

She paused a moment, but nodded, gently leading us up and out of Mistral Below.

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We didn’t talk much as we slowly made our way back through the crowded streets, weaving between festival-goers. I wasn’t too distracted to keep checking [Detect Grimm], but each time it turned up nothing and I quickly turned my attention back to the woman beside me. The inevitable conversation I’d be having with Amber was somewhere in the back of my mind, but I pushed it away.

All too soon, though, the walk was over, and we stopped outside a villa on the outskirts of a large compound on the South side of the mountain.

“I wasn’t expecting much out of tonight,” Bia admitted, tucking her hair behind her ear again as she turned to face me. “I was just doing my granduncle a favor. But bumping into you, spending time together… it feels like everything is right with life, the universe, and… everything.”

“It was a surprise, but a delight,” I agreed softly. I was still holding her hand, and she gave my fingers a gentle squeeze.

“I’m not sure how, but you always manage to surprise me,” she said. “Even when I was expecting to have fun with you tonight…”

“Glad to surpass your expectations.” I smiled. “I think I need hardly say that you blew mine away.”

Bia stepped closer, laying her free hand on my bicep. “I had a very good time tonight, Jaune,” she breathed.

After a beat, a moment that seemed to last forever, we both leaned forward… and the moment before our lips met, my Scroll rang.

The only caller who would actually ring through my current settings was Qrow, so he must have found something, and he wouldn’t be calling unless it was important, but… Dammit, Qrow.

Bia pulled back, a look of disappointment on her face that was quickly replaced by amusement at the frustration I knew must be evident on mine. Still, she was a professional, and she knew I was on a mission, so she nodded obligingly.

“What?” I said into the Scroll, trying not to let too much of my annoyance through.

He answered softly, but there was some urgency in Qrow’s voice when he replied. “Get down to Ninigi Park; I found the guy you– Shit!”

There was a crunching sound and the call cut.

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Name: Jaune ArcLevel: 59 (Next: 67.87%)Title: Academy StudentRace: HumanAge: 18Job: Journeyman HuntsmanClass: PaladinSemblance: The GamerHP: 7834/7834MP: 4369/4369STR: 222 (100)CON: 274 (102)DEX: 160 (54)INT: 136 (51)WIS: 110 (52)CHA: 151 (52)Points: 102Money: 951,788LStatus: Cursed – Yellow Death [High]

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A/N: If you’re enjoying this story, feel free to check out my discord server at https://discord.gg/H6V854Fvbg

I made a promise to reference life, the universe, and everything, since this turned out to be chapter 42.

Paper lanterns called chōchin (提灯) are collapsible carried or hung outdoors; red ones called akachōchin (赤提灯) traditionally mark an izakaya (居酒屋) bar.Another style, called bonbori (雪洞), are common during festivals. In Japan, as I’ve mentioned, flower viewing usually means cherry blossoms; night viewings are called yozakura (夜桜) lit. ‘night sakura’ — here they’re being used to illuminate the plum blossoms instead.

Karaage (唐揚げ) is Japanese deep-frying of floured and marinated meat or fish, as contrasted with tempura (天ぷら) which is battered and not marinated; the most common karaage you’ll see is chicken.Dolmades is a word of Turkish origin for dishes of stuffed leaves or vegetables; in this case they are stuffed grape leaves, which would normally be called Sarma in Turkish, but is usually still called ντολμάδες (‘dolmathes’) in Greek. Variations of the dish are found all over the Mediterranean and Near East.Chinese 烧卖 (siu mai) or Japanese 焼売 (shumai) is a steamed dumpling that similarly has various spellings and ingredients all over East Asia; the most common (and the one represented here) is Cantonese.

The referenced poem is my interpretation of a haiku written by the poet Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉) in Genroku 06 (1693 in the Gregorian calendar). In the original Japanese the poem reads 春もやや 気色ととのふ 月と梅; the literal meaning is something closer to ‘spring mist / the sight is ready / the moon and plum’.There are a variety of approaches to ELH, of which the ‘5-7-5 syllable count’ is considered the most simplistic and barely reflects the actual qualities of haiku. Still, it’s the most recognized form in the West, and I thought it got the point across.

Ninigi-no-Mikoto (瓊瓊杵尊) is the husband of Konohanasakuya; a grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu-Ōmikami (天照大御神, 天照大神) and great-grandfather to the first Emperor of Japan. In many stories he receives the Three Sacred Treasures (三種の神器) — the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi (草薙劍), representing valor; the mirror Yata no Kagami (八咫鏡), representing wisdom; and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama (八尺瓊勾玉), representing benevolence.