Peridot
Forum Replies Created
-
“Nothing wrong with going old school,” Manticore commented, satisfied that at the very least Leon wouldn’t be resisting or casting doubt on everything she said from this point onward. He still might have freak-outs, but she felt fairly confident that she could handle it. In fact, the Arcobaleno found it amusing and almost nostalgic. How long ago had it been since she had first discovered the power of her resolve?
“If your transport truly has been compromised, Mortelupi, then we could always travel via Starbucks,” she said nonchalantly. Normally she would have been reluctant to reveal one of her secrets like this, but the attempted assassination affected them all and according to the detective’s expertise, time was of the essence. The small infant shot the two men an appraising look as something malicious flashed in her eyes accompanied by a slightly sadistic grin. “It will be a tight squeeze, but I’ll make you fit.”
-
“I noticed a cafe near the center of town we could go to,” Dimitri suggested as he realized that he wasn’t sure what type of food Fallen liked to eat. He had wandered past the cafe yesterday morning while running his errands and had immediately regretted the fact that he had already eaten lunch on the train into town. “It’s a bit late to get breakfast, but the lunch menu looked nice. Of course, I’ll have to insist that you let me treat you,” he said with a smile as he saw Fallen pull out some money.
-
Dimitri let out a soft sigh, “I’m a little bit hungry… And I’d like to send a note to my guild. Do you think assassins would risk making a scene in public?” The mage gave Fallen a slightly troubled look as he fondly brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. “I simply cannot abide anything putting you in danger.”
-
Dimitri’s heart ran wild as Fallen returned the kiss. The past 24 hours had been both the best and worse moments in his life with the possible exception of learning how to cast magic. The realization that Fallen most definitely like him back was just another high on this roller coaster of a day.
He was on what felt like a non-stop rush of adrenaline due equal parts to the feelings of adoration he held towards Fallen and mortal fear. Dimitri realized with some dismay that Fallen was still running on no sleep. He did not want to die, but he worried that the way things were going on Fallen would wear herself out trying to escape the assassin.
One of Dimitri’s hands lightly stroked and caressed the back of Fallen’s head as she pulled away, and his eyes fluttered open at the loss of contact. His eyes were dancing with happiness as he looked back at Fallen. He immediately longed to try and steal as many kisses as he could from Fallen, but then all too suddenly his gaze narrowed in suspicion and looked over the girl’s shoulder. For just an instant, he had seen a flicker of something in the rear view mirror on Fallen’s side. It might have been just his panic and adrenaline playing tricks on him. “Sorry, Fallen. I thought I saw something in the mirror.”
-
Dimitri blushed at Fallen’s steady gaze into his eyes but moved in closer so that his forehead brushed up against hers, and made sure to return the look even though he felt flattered and embarrassed by her words. He paused for a moment, about to say something before throwing caution to the wind and gently pulling her into a warm embrace and leaned forward to kiss her gently.
-
“I’m so sorry, there are some real pigs out there,” Dimitri said sympathetically. Fallen had her hand on the steering wheel and was looking very concerned and worried even though she wouldn’t look at him straight in the eye. “Hey,” he said in a gentle voice using his free hand to gently stroke the girl’s cheek and giving her his most encouraging smile if she chose to look his way,”if there’s anything I can do to help just let me know. Your wish is my command, beautiful.”
-
The next few events were simply a whirlwind for Dimitri, as he glanced back and forth between Fallen driving the car and the city vehicles and buildings rushing past at breakneck speed as they took off down the road. He unequipped his armor, sending it back to the pocket dimension where he kept all of his spare outfits and weapons and replacing his clothes with a light blue hoodie with some white fluff around the collar and dark jeans.
He had been pleasantly surprised by the near kiss, feeling a strange mix of both disappointment and adrenaline pumped relief as they managed to escape the assassin for now. “I’m so sorry for getting you involved in this mess, Fallen.” He was in complete awe at how collected she was under pressure, given that they had no idea who was after the two of them. He could only hope these friends of her would be able to help them.
“Beautiful, kind, terrifyingly competent, and a wonderful humming voice. How are you still single?”
-
“Wait! Who else have you killed?” Dimitri demanded, trying to figure out what type of people the assassin normally killed. Was he after criminals, rogue mages, civilians? It was still a mystery to him why someone would want him dead. He was a low-ranking mage in Blue Pegasus, not important enough for his death to cause chaos but generally well liked. It was almost a given that any mage in Blue Pegasus had a positive presence in the media.
“I honestly can’t think of anyone who would want me dead,” he elaborated, “I’m just on a Normal-class job running messages and gifts and…errands.” Dimitri paused in his speech, wondering if maybe the gifts and messages he was sending were important after all. He hadn’t looked at them because that would have been rude and a violation of privacy, but what if one of the messages he was carrying was important enough that somebody wanted him dead before he could deliver them? The thought caused the Requip mage to shiver slightly with worry. He lowered the gun by a few inches.
Also, his lovely Fallen was surprisingly rich, assuming she hadn’t been bluffing. The news was a surprise, but he’d deal with it once the assassin situation was safely squared away.
-
Dimitri frowned at the fact that he unarmored Fallen was protecting him with her body. His own gun was fixed upon the assassin ready to use a firing spell as soon as it looked like he pulled any thing funny.
“You don’t know who paid you to kill me?” He asked, surprised and dismayed at this information. Even if they killed this assassin, there might be more for some reason. The mage was still racking his brain trying to decide: was this a personal grudge against him or was his death supposed to send a message to someone more important?
-
Dimitri thanked Fallen after leaning heavily on her to stumble his way over to the bed. It looked very comfy, but he didn’t think there was any way he could fall asleep when the dark mage was still out and about nearby, waiting for Fallen to show up. His grasp remained tight around the magic gun Fallen had given him. The look she was giving him filled the mage with relief that she wasn’t going to go out and needlessly risk her life.
“You have a wonderful voice,” he complimented as he heard her hum, “and while I can think of no sweeter lullaby, there is no way I can go to sleep knowing that you’re in danger, Fallen.” He pushed himself up against the back of the large bed so he could better face the windows and doors of the room. With a look of concentration, Dimitri formed a spinning magic circle, summoning a set of magic armor over his pants and bare chest.
The Blue Pegasus Guild had encouraged him to learn how to both summon his armor quickly and more extravagantly depending on whether he was using Requip magic in combat or to put on a show. They weren’t in immediate danger, so Dimitri put in a decent amount of flair into the summoning spell, glowing a light blue in color as the armor materialized on top of him. There wasn’t too much time to waste, and his injuries prevented him from pulling his full-out transformation sequence.
“Last time, he took us unawares, but now we know he’s coming at least.”
-
“Fallen, I have fallen madly in like with you. Please don’t go.” He said, trying to come up with any possible way to stall and prevent her from meeting the assassin mage. The power of inertia was strong, and would hopefully see him through. Even though he did not like the idea of hiding in a closet, he hated the idea of having someone else needlessly sacrifice themselves “I am afraid that if you go alone to meet with this man, the world will be forever deprived of your kindness and beauty.”
-
Dimitri shot Fallen a look of pure horror. “He shot you in the arm! What makes you think he won’t do it again or worse!?” He grabbed the hand on her cheek and interlocked fingers to try and prevent her from leaving, his movements jerky with an urgency born from despair. The Requip mage’s eyes searched Fallen’s expression, his eyes pleading as he tried to convince her. “Please don’t go. Surely your guild will help you with this!?”
-
Dimitri noticed the fatigue in Fallen’s eyes and frowned. She really had stayed up all night for him, and after taking a bullet of her own and dressing both of their wounds. The lady had to be exhausted.
“You’ve done more than enough, you’ve saved my life.” He said with a firm yet gentle voice, “What I would really like now is for you to get some sleep. Please take care of yourself.”
The girl didn’t seem to have called any outside help last night, and he wasn’t sure whether she had some reason for that or not but Dimitri did not want to wait around for the would-be-assassin to come back now that he knew where Fallen lived. There had to be some database to match tattoos to known guilds, and coupled with Fallen’s description, he could put out a bounty for their attacker if there wasn’t one already.
-
Dimitri’s pulse had been strong and steady, but he could feel his heart begin to race like a jackrabbit when Fallen laid her head on his bare chest. “I’m glad, it’s terrible that such a pretty thing like you got involved in this mess.”
The mage paused for a moment, trying to rack his brains to come up with a reason why they were attacked to ignore the way his chest began to pound at Fallen’s touch. He was a bit of a flirt, but hadn’t made any serious moves on girls recently, and he couldn’t recall any boyfriends angry enough with him to attempt an assassination in the dark. He hadn’t gone on many missions either, and the higher ranking guild members would have been targeted if that were the case. Could Fallen have an angry ex or some other assailant that she hadn’t told him about?
“Did you, by any chance recognize our attacker? He had a guild tattoo on his neck, but I was a bit too distracted to place it…”
-
He grimaced slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed at being so dependent on Fallen, but he couldn’t resist her charming bedside manner so he drank the water.
“I’m so sorry for scaring you, my dear. Is your arm alright?” He looked to try and find where she had gotten shot.