Meeting On The Cliffs [Rita/Vanyel]

Right. Of course, that was just logical. Vanyel breathed a quiet sigh of relief at that. It wasn't an instant hire, expecting something like that was just wishful thinking, but, he had gotten Vi's foot in the door. So, with a soft nod, Vanyel leaned back a bit, still fidgeting lightly in his lap. This was good news. He'd help out Vi for the meeting as best he could.

"Yeah. Alright, good."

Part of him couldn't help but think of the worst case scenario, unsure of what he, or Violet, would do then. But, he couldn't focus on that. It wouldn't help anything. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. He'd leave the problems of tomorrow for the him of tomorrow. Vanyel took a deep breath, calming himself down.

"Right. Where do you think I should start for the City of Lights stuff?"

Yeah. He knew that she would just chew Violet out or anything. He was just...worried over nothing, right? Vanyel sighed, bringing his hands to his face as he gave a soft nod in response to her. As far as starting with Lilith, that seemed to be as good a place to start as any. He pulled out the business card from his wallet, tucking it away separate in his pocket before he turned to see Rita's expression, causing him to raise an eyebrow...

...Only for her to pull out a company credit card, and he chuckled as she smirked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Rita. If I'm bein' honest...this girl, Violet, I wanted to find a way to keep livin' with her in the City of Lights, so, I thought, figurin' out a way to bring work to the city would be best."

Vanyel didn't realize that he was smiling as he told her. He liked spending time with her. She was proving to be a fantastic student, both in cooking and martial arts, but...he still really enjoyed the time they spent together outside of that. Him showing her movies that display the martial arts he knew or taught, telling her all sorts of fantastical stories from the mythos of his home...it made him happy.

As Rita put her hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye, Vanyel's smiled faltered for a moment, unsure of how to react from that...only for such a blunt question to come out. Immediately, his jaw dropped open and his cheeks flushed red, a hand rising to cover it.

"N-No! Well, I mean...fuckin'...agh!"

Anyone who saw that could tell he was lying, and fumbling to try and make excuses. But, with such a blunt callout, and her following up to sink him even deeper, Vanyel couldn't really try and keep that up.

"Well...k-kinda, yeah. I've been helpin' her out a lot lately, and...well..."

Vanyel's hand slowly went from his mouth, to rubbing the side of his neck, his face still lit up with more color than an average Lunar New Year.

"I...don't wanna be away from her."

The first comment only served to make Vanyel want to hide his face even more, despite how impossible that was becoming with how red his face was becoming. The follow-up was little better, especially for someone who didn't really know how to process real compliments. But, the ending part did catch him by surprise, and alleviated the fluster a little bit.

He never knew that she had seen him in that regard. Then, she asked about what she was like, allowing him a moment's reprieve. His face was still red, but he was far less flustered. There was certainly embarrassment, but there was also a sense of wistful joy to those crystalline, zircon-colored eyes.

"God, where do I even start...at first, I was just stayin' with her since she wanted to learn martial arts from me. We'd watch movies together when we'd finish to unwind and have some fun, but, then...she had a really bad day, and she ended up going through a really...really rough patch for a bit.

That night when Violet had come home, high off heroin, still was able to make that joyful expression falter. Even if they hadn't known each other for a terribly long time, he had seen how bad that stuff could affect someone, and he didn't want to see it ruin another life.

"I got called away to Germany to help fix a distribution problem with the company, and, the whole time, I was worryin' about her, ended up keepin' track through her phone's GPS. She ended up in Japan, somehow, and I went to pick her up. She was...really beat up, so, I brought her to my place to help nurse her back to health."

Despite how injured she was, that smile returned as he thought of the good times they'd spent together during that point.

"Once she was back on her feet, I started teachin' her how to cook, and, one time, she did this thing, i-it was so fuckin' cute. When she was measurin' milk to make a mix for French toast, she drank the excess to get it back down to the proper level."

He kept going on and on about Violet, eventually coming to a stop, that joy fading into a more relaxed, but still upbeat and positive look to him, compared to the serious expression he always wore when on the job. Rita, of all people, knew how important his work was, and how seriously he took it.

Vanyel hadn't expected Rita to be so serious and emphatic on the matter. As she emphasized confessing to Violet how he felt and officially making the two of them an item, Vanyel's face turned a bit red, looking away from her with a bashful smile as he rubbed the side of his neck.

"Well...I did have an idea for a date with her. If we schedule her interview on the same day as the one I schedule with Lilith for this endeavor, it could... "

Vanyel trailed off, his thoughts immediately delving into what all he could do to make that night special. He'd definitely have to make something she liked, that was a definite. He didn't want to just have it at her house, so...maybe he could try and rent out the pier on the beach where they met. He had also secretly bought her that dress she was eyeing the one day, so...maybe everything could come together.

But, hearing the mention of Rita's age snapped him out of his thought process, causing him to give her a gentle nudge in return.

"You're not that old, Rita. Hell, I'm not even that much younger than you."