Chapter 20: Interlude - Velvet

As the time to leave Beacon and head for Lapis' apartment approached, Velvet's nerves started getting the best of her. It was laughable really. Her, the Huntress in-training, partner of the strongest person in their year, who didn't blink at the idea of clearing out a horde of hundreds of Grimm, was starting to sweat and get anxious over the idea of going over to a guy's apartment.

All this time, she'd been telling herself that she was ready for this. That it didn't necessarily have to lead up to anything serious at the end of the night. That she was only going to learn how to bartend and maybe get to know Lapis a little bit better. But, now that the time to actually follow through had arrived, her mind couldn't help but overcomplicate the situation.

She was interested in Lapis and hoped that spending some time together might lead up to her first actual romantic relationship. But that right there was the crux of the issue. She'd never dated or even seen someone who she could see herself dating. Velvet wasn't sure on what she was supposed to be doing or how much was just enough.

What was to be expected from this kind of scenario? Where she agreed to enter the man's home as the evening turned into night. Learning how to bartend was the excuse for them to get together — though, she was interested in picking up the skill to maybe earn a little extra on the side — but anyone with common sense could pick out the subtext of their little get together.

Because she had agreed to come over to his place, was she being expected to put out? That was something people their age did casually all the time, right? Huntsmen and Huntresses all the more so since they matured and lived much faster paced and shorter lives. 

But she was inexperienced and she never really thought about all these things until just now as she walked with her team back to their dorm. Velvet wasn't against the idea of losing her virginity before marriage like some of her religious family members might be, but she also didn't want to just throw it away with someone she didn't know for more than a few weeks.

What was she to do now, though? Cancel the lesson and run away? She was self-aware enough to know that if she went over there, she probably wouldn't find it in herself to reject him if he was tactful about it. Would that make it any better or was she already planning out a way to cope if things went wrong?

"Alright, you two stay out for the next half hour or so. I need to get Velvet ready for her date," Coco directly said to the male members of her team.

"She's going out for a first date barely disguised as a bartending lesson, not getting married, Coco," Fox said, "Why the hell are you kicking us out, like we're not allowed to see her or something?"

"My planned girl talk with Velvet might see me get loud and that's for her ears only."

"Whatever," Fox said, but ultimately agreed to leaving with Yatsuhashi for a "walk."

When it was just Velvet and Coco left in the room, the latter looked at the former poignantly until Velvet broke down and turned away.

"You look like you have a lot on your mind, hun," Coco carefully said.

"It's… Nothing," Velvet didn't even sound convinced of it herself. "I'm probably just overthinking things."

"Trust me, you definitely aren't," Coco snorted. "This is your first date ever right?" When her bunny-eared compatriot nodded, she added, "Then, you're already doing ten times better than me. I remember stressing out over everything for over a week in advance the first time I agreed to go out with a guy in my junior year at Signal Academy."

"I just… I'm not sure what to do or what's acceptable," Velvet quietly said.

"Don't worry about it so much. There's not really anything special to a date. Once you realize that it's just like hanging out but more focused on the person you are out with, you'll look back and laugh at how anxious you were leading up to it."

"I don't think it's that simple," Velvet sighed, "I'm going to his home, Coco. What if—"

"What if what?" Coco cut her off, challengingly. "What if he pressures you into having sex? Just tell him to fuck off and leave if you feel like it. You don't owe that to anyone you aren't comfortable with. And if at the end of the night you are feeling up to it, then take some contraceptives with you beforehand. I can't promise you won't regret it later, but it won't be the end of the world if you make a mistake you prepared for ahead of time."

"Is that even ok?" Velvet was curious. "Won't it give off a terrible impression to sleep with a guy on the first date? I thought the rule was that it was only okay after three or something like that."

"Velvet, hun… I don't know how many rom-com flicks you've seen to believe that, but all the bullshit you see there rarely happens in real life. Love at first sight, overly romantic and well planned out dates, and happily ever afters are good narrative tropes, but we live in a world where you and I train to kill monsters for a living. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but real relationships aren't all sunshine and rainbows, especially for Huntresses in-training like us."

"Besides," Coco snorted, apparently amused by her thought as she added, "men are simple creatures. They won't be turned off because you offered to sleep with them on the first date. They'll see that as the highest form of interest instead."

She frowned as she concluded, "Just… Be careful. Lapis seems like an alright dude, but you never know when you're dealing with a charismatic asshole whose only ever interested in sex and nothing else. Not that I'm sure you're looking for anything serious yourself, just that if you are, I'm warning you now that having sex will let you know pretty much immediately afterwards what kind of guy you're dealing with."

"That's… Something to think about," Velvet said as she considered her friend's advice.

"Come on, you can think about that on your way over to his place. You need to get in the shower ASAP if you want to have time for me to help do your makeup and dress you up in a way that'll knock his socks off."

That wasn't the impression Velvet was going for, but it sounded better than just showing up looking "good enough."

As she was washing off all the sweat, dirt and grime she had picked up over the course of the school day — half of it having been spent fighting the Grimm during an outing for the Combat Class with Professor Goodwich — Velvet looked down at her bare form and frowned as a whole new set of doubts and insecurities surfaced.

Would Lapis even be interested? She wasn't even that attractive compared to him. Surely he could pull better than someone like her. A short — 5'6 if you didn't count the bunny ears, which she didn't — more muscly than curvy, Fanus nobody. None of the things she thought of seemed to detract from how he interacted with her, but still. Compared to her own team leader and countless other women, she had nothing special to speak of.

Not with her modest rear and B-cup breasts. Not with her common brown hair and eyes. She was far from outgoing and never seemed to have anything interesting to say or add to a conversation. Where at first, she was paralysed by the idea of him trying to sleep with her, now that she looked at herself drying off in the mirror, she couldn't see why he'd even want to.

As a Huntress in-training who managed to enter Beacon, she had built a body of finely honed muscles that were built for functionality. She had abs, well-developed legs and glutes, which she thought guys would appreciate, but she also had noticeable biceps and triceps, shoulders and upper back. With very little fat left over for her chest and butt, there was nothing aside from fetish material to drawn in any amount of arousal; her short stature, faunus traits, or conventionally unappealing physique.

Velvet left the bathroom visibly depressed and Coco obviously took note as she did her best to distract her friend and teammate by getting her to focus on dressing up. She took the "less is more" approach by keeping things relatively simple and subtle, but Velvet couldn't help but take it as there being no hope of making her prettier with the ugly base Coco had to work with.

Decked out in a pleated brown skirt, with a white sleeveless shirt, a light brown jacket, a simple belt and her normal sneaker shoes, Velvet thought she looked plain even with the touch of make-up on her face. Brown and white, and nothing else; nothing fancy.

Maybe it was for the best. If she didn't try to hide behind the veneer of fancy clothes and enough make-up to turn a potato attractive, there would be no reason for Lapis to make a move tonight. That's what she wanted, right?

Right?

Velvet left Beacon at 5:23 and arrived at the residential area of Vale at 5:55 PM. She had mixed feelings about how the whole bartending lessons thing would turn out, but she was less nervous and anxious than had been prior to her talk with Coco. It was depressing that she preferred this different brand of insecurity over the old one, but there was little she could do to change how she felt about herself.

At 6:04 she arrived outside the apartment complex Lapis lived in. It took a few more minutes to enter the building, take the elevator to the sixth floor and find the door to his specific apartment. Once she did, she steeled herself before knocking on the door.

In between her first and second knock, the door opened with Lapis looking down at her with an amused smile. Velvet was startled until she recalled that he had mentioned having sensing abilities.

"Come on, in," he said as he moved out of the entryway for her to enter the apartment. "How's your day been?" He asked while leading her over to the kitchen area where various bottles were already prepped with pouring spouts as well as various other ingredients.

"More or less the same as any other," Velvet said, slowly easing the tension she felt with Lapis acting like he did every other time he talked to her. He was no more bothered or changed by the fact that they were alone in his apartment than he was when they talked in the middle of the cafeteria. "Today we went to Forever Fall for a Combat Class assignment and fought a few dozen Grimm, so it was half a day of training and half a day of studying with a lunch break in between. What about you?"

"Today is one of my rest days, so after a morning workout, I just walked around and ate out at a restaurant for lunch before coming back here to prepare for your lesson. Is there anything in particular you want to learn first? Or, if you know anything about mixology, how about you show me that before I take the reigns and figure out what you need to know?"

Velvet looked down with a self-deprecating smile as she said, "I can barely make a sandwich or boil an egg and that's after half a year of living away from my mom. I've never even touched a drop of alcohol, so I wouldn't even know where to start."

"That's fine," Lapis' face didn't so much as twitch. "We can start with learning what all this equipment is called, what it does, and why it's important."

He started simple, with a shaker, a strainer, a bottle opener, a corkscrew… Things that you didn't need to be a bartender to come across. When he moved on to some of the less common-looking equipment, the ice crusher, jigger, muddler, rimmer, zester, and so on that Velvet wasn't all too sure about, he explained everything clearly and concisely.

Once they went over all the equipment, Lapis started showing her the various techniques used by bartenders and how to do it properly with the equipment Velvet had just learned about before giving her a chance to try out the technique herself. Her Semblance, Photographic Memory, really took out all the challenge there would have been in getting used to pouring liquids out of a liquor pourer or finding the finesse to layer fluids of different densities.

When she could mimic Lapis' technique, it never took more than a single example from the man before Velvet could do it perfectly herself. After that, it was open season on picking out which recipes to learn and trying them out to see where she could improve.

"Congrats, you're officially good enough to work at any bar I can think of," Lapis said. It was around two hours after Velvet arrived at his apartment. "After making new three drinks on your own that involve a cocktail smoker, whipping siphon, and milk-washing without resorting to copying me, there's pretty much nothing you can't make on your own. Now you just have to work on your speed, and it'll look just as impressive as what I did when they needed me to bartend at the restaurant."

He looked unexpectedly pleased with himself for some reason, like this was something far from what he had been expecting. It was as disheartening as it was understandable for Velvet. This was probably just something he offered on a whim and was glad she'd soon no longer have a reason to bother him.

"Thank you," Velvet said, shrinking in on herself as what little confidence and ego-boost she'd gotten from showing off with her Semblance was blown away by her self-image issues.

"You know, this was a lot more fun than I thought it be. Maybe it's just because you're such a good student, but this was a good way to kill an afternoon," Lapis said and Velvet swore she had hallucinated it.

Sure, it had been a good time for her. Lapis had done an amazing job keeping her invested by keeping all his talking points relevant. He was patient and added funny little quips periodically to keep things from being overly sterile and educational.

But Velvet? She'd not had much to do besides give him her undivided attention and maybe laugh or make an inane comment every once in a while. She had done everything in her power to not make this seem like a waste of time in his eyes and she wasn't sure how it could have been enjoyable to anyone.

"So, I was thinking maybe you'd be interested in doing this again. You mentioned not being able to cook and, well, that's literally my job. Is that something you're interested in?" Lapis asked.

"That'd be great," Velvet said. She wasn't really thinking when she admitted, "I had a good time too and not just because I'm learning a new skill."

"Wow," Lapis' smile took on an amused shade as he said, "and here I thought I'd have to be a little more convincing. I'm not sure if you ate an early dinner before coming here, so if you're hungry, I can give you a preview of what you have to look forward next time."

"I could eat," Perhaps for the first time since all her insecurities came to the forefront of her mind, Velvet smiled genuinely.

"Are you feeling partial to anything specifically? I usually eat out, so my fridge and pantry are practically empty. It wouldn't take more than three minutes to make a trip to the nearest grocery store."

"Anything is fine, I'm not picky about my food," Velvet said.

Lapis took a second to make his mind up before he… brought his hands together into a strange sign and a perfect copy of himself appeared to his immediate right. The clone then went on to jump out the window and fly away.

"What." Velvet was so perplexed by what she'd just witnessed that the word was not even intoned as a question.

"Shadow Clone. He knows what to do. While he's out, do you want to sit on the couch and watch TV or something? Maybe call in on your teammates and let them know how much of a gentleman I've been?" He laughed.

"Have they been on your mind?" Velvet asked, unsure if that was perhaps the reason for his good behavior. If he was trying to keep a good impression on the rest of his teammates, it would make sense for him to maintain a friendly facade with her. That seemed much more likely than anything else to her.

"Only a little bit," Lapis rolled his eyes. "Can you believe Fox actually thought anything would happen between us? What a joke. I mean, I know he's blind, but come on. "

Velvet felt like she had taken a punch from Yatsuhashi without her Aura active. It stung something fierce to hear him all but reject her without directly saying as much to her face. Maybe he had picked up on her interest and said this now to stop her from making a fool out of herself and pursuing anything further.

"You're clearly not interested in me, so there's no shot in hell of that ever happening," Lapis continued, and just like that, Velvet experienced whiplash that only someone in extreme emotional turmoil could. "With how gorgeous you are, you're probably already taken and even if you weren't, you don't strike me as the adventurous type who'd sleep around with anyone just for the thrill of it."

That was… flattering, but frankly unbelievable. Her? Gorgeous? She really couldn't see it.

"What has you so convinced to think that I'm clearly not interested?" She emphasized the last three words. "I haven't come across as dismissive or uptight at some point, have I?" She asked, frowning as she tried to recall any instance in which she might have come across as such.

"What? No. But I'm clearly out of your league and in the few short weeks we've known each other, I haven't picked up any signs that you could be interested, you know? Like I said, I assumed you're probably already taken, since you talk to me just as you do to Fox, Yatsuhashi, or anyone else at work."

'Oh,' was all Velvet could think to herself. 

"Really, you don't have to spare my feelings," now it was Lapis who smiled self-deprecatingly. "I can see reality for what it is. I won't be hung up just because we can't be more than friends. It'd be great if you were actually interested, but you don't have to be for me to have fun with you as just friends."

Wow. Just wow.

"That's…" Velvet laughed, "Just so off—" she nearly doubled over in a fit of hysterics, "— that I can't even."

All this time she'd been caught up in her head about how this night would go down. All the worries she'd had, first about whether or not it would be appropriate or acceptable to agree to sleep with him after this thinly disguised date. Then, to how laughable that was when she could barely see how anyone would find her attractive. To the shitshow that was the last couple of minutes.

All Velvet could do was laugh once Lapis shared his own view. He thought he was out of her league? In what world? Not only was he the picture of the ideal male form; good looking, tall, strong and yet approachable. But he was also so well put together it hurt. He could fight, he had a job and he had the freedom to choose the way he lived his life.

"I'm— I'm sorry," Velvet said when she found it within herself to stop laughing at such a ridiculous idea. "It just sounds so ridiculous to me. Are you actually interested?" Lapis looked more surprised than Velvet had ever seen him. It only added to the giddy feeling making the tension in her body melt away.

"Of course I'm interested," the genuine bit of hope in his tone hit her like a shot of adrenaline straight to the veins, "I think I've made it plenty clear how much I'm attracted to you. You're hot, adorable, easy to talk to, and simply nice to be around in general. Can't really think of anything else I'd want in a partner."

"Is that so?" Velvet's heart soared at by the unabashed compliments. "Well, I'd be happy to give us a chance. I, uh, I'm not in a relationship and this would be my first."

Lapis opened his mouth, but stopped himself from speaking as his clone came back through the window. It put the few grocery bags it had been carrying on the table before dispersing into a plume of smoke.

Lapis looked taken aback before he finally said, "That is perfectly fine with me. I haven't dated anyone either."

The conversation dropped off from there as Lapis started to work on five different aspects of the meal he planned on making for them and Velvet was content with watching him as she let his words simmer in the back of her thoughts. Today had not gone at all how she had expected, but despite the cacophony of emotions and the sheer devastation she felt at certain points, it all worked out in the end.

Although, perhaps it more than simply worked out.

After Lapis was done about half an hour into his meal prep, he presented two plates of steak with herb mashed potatoes and cucumber-carrot salad. It wasn't something on the Bistro Cafe menu, but it was every bit as good to Velvet. When they were done eating, Lapis summoned a new clone to deal with the mess left in the kitchen while he led her over to the living room couch and kick-started the longest conversation Velvet felt she'd ever taken part in.

She didn't know when, but somewhere in the midst of explaining what her classes were like at Beacon and why she liked photography so much, she had grown comfortable enough to lean on him as they talked. Another hour and a half passed before she knew it, but Velvet was sure they could have kept it up for much longer if her Scroll hadn't gone off with a text from Yatsuhashi asking her to let the team know that she was doing fine.

"Oh, darn it," she all but cursed as she realized it was nearing midnight.

"Bad news?" Lapis asked. Even after all these hours spent talking to her, he hadn't changed the slightest in how he talked to her. He didn't have to when he had been respectful and friendly from the get-go.

"The shuttles to and from Beacon stop half an hour before midnight. It looks like the time got away from us, so I'll be needing a place to stay until the shuttles open up again at six in the morning," Velvet said. She then realized that her casual tone from having gotten more comfortable with Lapis might have given off the wrong impression.

"Well, you could stay here if you want," Lapis offered and Velvet balked.

So… Maybe it wasn't as bad a wrong impression as she thought. Now that he was actually offering, she didn't really feel as anxious as she thought she would have. Not when Coco had prepared her for this precise possibility. Not when the last six or so hours had shown her more of Lapis' character.

"Or, you know, I could just fly you back if you want," Lapis added.

For a moment, Velvet felt disappointed. That is until she realized that this very moment might be the best display of his character that she had come across tonight. After she'd heard his direct flattering view of her and they'd agreed to try being in a relationship, she'd seen firsthand the clearest of signs of his very real interest. He'd given her every bit as much attention as she had when he had been teaching her how to mix drinks. When she had leaned into him, he had tactfully pulled her such that they were closer and more comfortable.

Clearly, it wasn't that he was as uninterested as she once believed most men would be towards her. So, for him to still go out of his way to offer her an out when he could have just kept his mouth shut and easily finessed his way into having her sleeping the night over... It made it clear beyond any reasonable doubt that he was not just in it for a quick lay like Coco had warned her to look out for.

He genuinely cared for her and wanted her to be as comfortable as possible.

The thought pleased her more than she thought possible. But, if she was being honest with herself, even if it elevated her impression of him to twice what it had been before, she was still a little uneasy at the thought of having sex so quickly when she still had "delusions of love and romance" as Coco had put it. As much as it disappointed her to accept his offer to fly her over to Beacon, that took the weight of expectation off her.

Lapis smiled in response as he jokingly said, "I guess that means I'll be your captain on tonight's flight. How will you be traveling with us this night? We offer an economy class fireman carry, business class piggybacks, and a very special first-class bridal carry."

"I'll take that, um, last one," Velvet was bashful but not to the point of embarrassingly blushing like she thought she could have been.

She let Lapis pick her up, supporting her with an arm on her back and under her thighs before they flew off through the window. With her own arms wrapped around his shoulders, it was the closest thing to a romantic scene straight out of novel that she had experienced.

Well… Aside from having spent hours just talking to her date, having a five-star meal cooked for her, being wined and dined on a technicality, and going through the most stereotypical misunderstanding imagined.

So, pretty much the whole time.

"Say, I know this is suppose to be the time where we just quietly hang onto each other while I slowly fly you home. But—" he emphasized enthusiastically, "— if you want, we could activate our Aura and rush back at a couple hundred miles an hour. You know, for fun."

"Do it," Velvet said as her orange-brown Aura lit up a few inches from her body. She was not at all prepared for Lapis to accelerate from car-like speeds in the middle of a residential area to faster than any flight she had taken in less than two seconds.

It was an amazing feeling, being so exposed while moving at such terrifying speeds yet having unerring trust in Lapis to keep her safe as the city turned to forest and later mountains in what felt like a few seconds. Hanging on to the man for dear life, didn't seem to bother him one bit as he simply squeezed her the slightest bit tighter to himself.

In next to no time at all, Beacon could be seen in the distance and even faster than that, they began to slow down at a much slower pace than Lapis had taken off at. When Velvet checked her scroll upon touching down, feeling weakness in her knees, the time read 11:54 PM. It had taken less than ten minutes overall to cross the fifty or so miles from his house.

"I had a great time tonight. So, if you were serious about wanting to learn how to cook or going on another date, you know where to shoot me a text or find me when I come to workout at Beacon," Lapis said.

Unable to believe that he was seriously still hinging everything off her possible interest in him, Velvet scrounged up every last bit of courage in her body before making it clear with a chaste kiss how she felt.

"If you're free a week from now, can we set the next Friday to go more or less like this one?" Velvet forced herself to look him in the eyes after that impulsive kiss.

"Sure…" Lapis' eyes widened before he grinned and added, "Just let me know what you want to learn cook first. Unlike bartending, it'll probably be impossible to teach you everything you could ever want to know in just two hours. We can make the cooking lessons a weekly date thing."

"That sounds lovely, Lapis." Velvet said before giving him a quick hug. "I had a great time tonight."

"Same," Lapis was clearly befuddled as he kept his response unusually short.

"I'll, uh, text see you tomorrow," Velvet said and after trading goodnights, she left for her dorm room.

As it was a Friday night, pretty much the entire student body was still up, ready to take advantage of the fact that they could sleep in during the weekend, and that included her teammates. They clearly wouldn't be expecting to see her so soon after getting word not twenty minutes prior that she had failed to make the last shuttle to Beacon.

So, when she used her scroll to bypass the locks and enter her dorm room, the entire place shut down immediately.

"How the—" Fox was the first to speak and the first to get cut off.

"Velvet! You're back," Yatsuhashi beamed at the sight of his partner.

"Hmm, and in a good mood too," Coco said as she narrowed her eyes.

"I had a good time," Velvet turned her head away defensively as she muttered, "and… We may have decided to give dating a shot."

"Girl, you've got to spill the beans immediately!" Coco's mood couldn't have turned around faster if she'd had a gun put to her head. "Come over and tell us. Tell us, tell us, tell us!"

Velvet sighed as she felt all the energy from the flight over drain before she summarized things for her doubtlessly curious teammates. She kept things to the objective truths of what had happened without mentioning anything about the rollercoaster of emotions she'd went through.

"Huh, so he's actually a good dude," Fox said like it had been a serious doubt on his mind.

"Probably," Coco shrugged her shoulders.

"As long as Velvet's treated well and happy, he's alright with me," Yatsuhashi said.

Velvet smiled at her teammates and how much concern they showed for her feelings and well-being. She'd grown to love them like family after having lived with them for the past half year and it was through moments like these that solidified that dynamic.

After her talk with them, she retired to her bed and let the mental exhaustion overtake her. Her sleep that night was among the most restful she had taken in her entire life.