Lee had about as much class eating as she had in conversation. That this was a high class restaurant meant nothing to her. After cutting her pizza into eight slices, she then proceeded to stuff them into her face with her hands. The miracle of it was that she managed to do so without getting anything onto herself. When she was done, she wiped her face and fingers off, downed her water and waited for John to finish his steak.

“Sated?” John asked, taking his sweet time cutting everything up into neat strips.

“Yeeaaaah,” Lee said and leaned back with a satisfied sigh. “Food is pretty great.” She raised her hand and had the barest decency to keep the burp covert. Her eyes darted around afterwards.

“After all of that, you’re afraid someone will be offended by your burping?” John asked, amused.

“I can be selectively ladylike,” the young Fateweaver responded. “How about you worry less about me and more about how slow you’re eating.” She took her fork and reached over the table. Swiftly, she impaled one of strips of steak on the Gamer’s plate. She wasn’t nearly swift enough to overcome his superhuman speed and he locked her down with his knife.

Seeing this as a challenge, Lee tried to steal this single piece off him, while John finished off the rest of the steak with his other hand. When he was about done, he finally let her have it. Giving her the smuggest of glares while emptying most of his wine. It had been hand-picked to go along with the meat and tasted incredible because of it. “Want the last bit?” he offered to Lee.

“I really shouldn’t,” she declined. “Dunno why, but I’m really sensitive to substances.”

“We’re going to take advantage of that at some point,” John said and rose from his seat. “Since you’re so eager to get out of here, we can go right now.”

“Don’t we have to pay?” Lee wondered, still offering her hand to let him pull her up.

“I paid in advance,” John informed her and guided her towards the wardrobe. Once there, he helped her into her coat.

“You know, I can put on my own clothes, yeah?” she asked, even as she slipped into the sleeves that he carefully kept sprawled out for her.

“Yes.” The Gamer slung his arms around her before she could close her coat. Bowed over her in the relative isolation of the sideroom, he kept her locked with one arm across the stomach. The other moved up and he grabbed her left breast. “If I just let you, I couldn’t get this close to you, though,” he whispered into her ear.

“What happened to being patient?” she challenged him, simultaneously leaning against his chest. Her nipples hardened and John pinched one through the dress. Reflexively, she shrunk together; the sharp pleasure must have been an intense sensation after her period of self-deprivation.

“I’m being patient,” John told her, “I also don’t have to hold back anymore.” He kissed her behind the ear and then backed off. “There’s a great many things I wanted to do to you while you so recklessly flirted with me. Reciprocating feels like justice.”

“I am feeling mighty non-violated,” Lee complained and closed up her coat. At least nobody could see just how excited she was, while they headed for the exit. What people could see, however, was that John was a lot closer than he had been on entering. Rather than offering his arm, he now had it put around her, his hand resting on the curve of her hip. “Scratch that, I am feeling mighty violated,” she said when they were outside, her face beet red.

“You’re just a walking bundle of contradictions.” Amusement was still the strongest emotion in his voice. “Do you care about what people think or not? Do you want me to get sexual or not?”

“I don’t care consciously, but I can’t help it if I’m not used to stuff, okay?” Lee fired back.

“You actually can help it. Just expose yourself to what embarrasses you,” the Gamer said and groped her butt. “Do you think I was always this daring? I used to be an introvert who would blush at the mere thought of kissing a girl in public.” He grinned at her. “You’re much better at the whole flirting thing than I used to be.”

“How the fuck did you land with Jane then?” Lee wanted to know.

“Well,” the Gamer thought back on the chain of events that had led them to dating, “I was lucky that she was single and I had interesting powers that gave her free access to danger.”

“She’s a daredevil.”

“To put it mildly.” John nodded and squeezed Lee’s butt some more. There was a satisfying amount of flesh to hold onto. “God, that really paid off for me.”

“It really paid off for ME,” Lee corrected.

“You keep believing that,” John retorted immediately.

Lee rolled her eyes. “You’re one possessive guy, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely. If I wasn’t, I might have been able to quit you.” They walked along the street, few people crossing their paths and fewer still as they left this populated part of the largely empty city. “It’s bad enough for me if I can’t have something – to not have something I could have is so much worse. To not be able to be with someone whose feelings I reciprocate would be pure torture. Someone as entertaining, sassy and beautiful as you belongs by my side.”

Blushing in a different way, Lee poked her date’s stomach with her elbow. “Shut up, dude,” she said with a giant happy grin on her face. She kept her eyes focused on the floor. “You should be careful complimenting a girl for her sass, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Good,” John gave her behind a small clap and Lee gasped in surprise, “I want that in my partners. I don’t take myself too seriously. Doesn’t really work out if you get criticized from all directions.”

“Speaking of criticizing you,” the smaller woman smoothly transitioned, “why are we walking?”

“See, the thing is, humans inhabit a physical world and in order to get from a to b we must move our feet.”

“Very funny, dude.” Lee’s dry, deep tone was compromised by the remainder of a grin she still had on her face.

“I know, I am hilarious.”

“You’re a clown, yeah.”

John remained silent, then suddenly snorted at his own thoughts. When he noticed Lee’s questioning gaze, he said, “You don’t want to know.”

“Don’t pull that timewaster on me,” Lee groaned. “Typical people behaviour. Do something that makes everyone wonder what you are on about, then go ‘you don’t want to know’ to make everyone curious what you were thinking and then cave at the slightest amount prodding. Just spit it out, asshole.”

“Alright then,” John conceded and went, “Honk – honk,” while squeezing her butt twice. Lee groaned, John laughed some more. “Sorry, sorry,” he apologized in earnest. “I told you – you don’t want to know.”

“Yeah, that might be the worst thing I’ve learned about you so far,” Lee grumbled.

John didn’t verify whether that was true or not. He used the passive Observe window sporadically. It made things a bit too easy and he trusted his intuition enough to sort things out. The beauty of this whole thing was that Lee liked who he was, so all he had to do to make her feel stronger about him was to keep behaving like himself.

He had her figured out, at least in the broad strokes. She liked to be bullied as much as she liked to give sass, she liked it when he bantered with her and she adored his physical presence. Since he had put an arm around her, she had seemed incredibly uncomfortable socially, but she also kept close to him and walked with confidence. She felt secure at his side. That was an incredibly important thing.

“You know what the worst thing about you is?” John asked her.

“That I play League?”

John had already opened his mouth, but the words had been stolen from him. “That is… exactly what I was going to say. Well done.”

“Just because I’m a lazy, vulgar, aggressive little gremlin doesn’t mean I’m not self-aware.”

“Those are all traits the average League player has,” John agreed. “Clearly, you should switch to the superior game: Dota 2.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll change from being lazy, vulgar and aggressive to elitist, vulgar, aggressive and Russian!” Lee agreed enthusiastically. “Privet, comrade support, have you been stacking creeps dutifully, for comrade core?”

“Why am I not surprised that you know the jargon?”

“Because I’m a multi-talented gaming wonder,” Lee boasted, “and you’re a boring tank player.”

“No, I fill and make sure the team is well-balanced,” John pushed back. “Not my fault everyone always ever only picks what deals damage and nobody cares about CC or being able to engage. Really, I should be applauded. I pick the heroes that charge in first and I sacrifice my KDA so that others may carry. I’m practically gaming Jesus.”

“…Dude, you just fill, get off your high horse.” The dry tone of Lee accompanied her slowly putting an arm around him. She pulled herself as close as possible against his side. “Also, stop dodging my question: why are we walking.”

“Do I need to repeat the a to b thing?”

“You literally have quick travel enabled in real life.” She gestured at the Statue of Liberty, poking up above the distant shore. “We can just go to one of your teleporters and get over there instantly.”

“We could, but we won’t,” John told her. “I want time to just talk to you. There’s nowhere we have to be at a specific time.”

“You booked nothing else?” Lee asked. “No horse-drawn carriages or extravagant processions?”

“No,” John told her, simply walking on with her at his side. “I wanted us to have the energy for the day and therefore we started with a restaurant. To make the rest of the day an unforgettable experience, I don’t need to buy you anything or enlist anybody else. I’ll just be with you.”

“You think just talking and groping my ass will be enough to make this a legendary evening?” Lee challenged, only to yelp when he swept her off her feet. Lying across his arms in the often seen princess carry, the sassiness of the dark-haired woman made room for stuttering surprise. “W-what are you doing?!”

“Reminding you just what you got interested in,” the Gamer said, relaxing his hold on her. It was a feint, he only cared for her reflexes to kick in. Instinctively, she held onto the first thing she could. Both her arms slung around his neck. He secured his hold again and leaned towards her face. “Daring, powerful and a tease, I would say that summarizes me fairly well.”

“Don’t forget being a giant, prideful asshole!” Lee shouted back. “Urgh, sorry, that was a bit much.”

“Eh, 4 out of 10 Elizas,” he joked. “I’ve had to deal with much worse insults. Honestly though, Lee, do you want me to put you back down?” He held her highly, carrying her softly as he walked along. Her hair and legs dangled on either end and her dark eyes dashed between his face and their surroundings. Their path had taken them to a street that went along the water. Here, there were people again. People who fished and people who used this route to go for a walk.

“We’re being watched,” Lee pointed out, not immediately answering the question.

“And? We’ve got nothing to hide. I’m just one man carrying a woman he adores.”

“Eh, uh, hmm, ahh…” Lee made a series of embarrassed, stuttering and ultimately futile sounds, before ending it all with a resigned grunt. “Just carry me wherever you want to take me.”

“With pleasure,” John hummed and they quietly walked along the water. It was the first time on the date, perhaps the first time since they had met each other, that they were silent together. It had always been chatting or bantering about this or that, getting annoyed with game mechanics or flirting in whatever ways they could with her family breathing down John’s neck.

This silence was important to John because it was comfortable and neither of them forced out something for the sake of conversation. Chemistry between people was often measured in how well they bounced off each other. That was a valid way to look at it, especially when it came to the initial couple of meetings. For a long-term relationship, partners had to be able to be content with each other’s presence alone. Life couldn’t be all about chatting. Not even Sylph believed that.

He carried her all the way to the pier, where they caught the ferry in a stroke of luck. The dozen other people there weren’t surprised to see their president. For that to be the case, he walked around the Guild Hall and Hudson Barrier too often. John placed Lee down as the boat began to move.

“They’re staying away,” Lee noted. “Dunno why, but I thought people would keep running at you, heckling or praising you or something.”

“Nobody heckles me, have you seen my approval ratings?” John joked. Leaning onto the railing of the ferry, he gave a more serious explanation. “No, I’ve made it clear a while ago that I don’t like to be disturbed while I’m walking around in a private capacity. The vast majority of people respect that.”

“They do?”

“Don’t be too surprised. Wherever you go, you find a lot of decent people. Perception gets skewed by the loud, the obnoxious and the tactless.” Tapping the railing next to him twice, he made her come closer. “What do you think of this view?” he asked and gestured out.

Beyond the crystal-clear water was a city covered in fog. The weather obstructed somewhat the vision he wanted her to see, but the city that had once been a mere copy of the Big Apple still peeled from its mists with its forests and fantastical landmarks. Beyond it, the mundane city still existed as hollow copies of what lay outside the Hudson Barrier’s expanse.

“It’s a city,” Lee said.

John laughed out loud. “Yeah, yeah, it is,” he told her. “Sorry, I should’ve expected that answer. I’m like that with many things myself. To me, however, this city is something special. I consolidated it. I cleaned up the water. I gave the people the opportunity to strive for their own happiness and they took it. It’s a monument to my success.” He looked over to Lee, brushed some of her hair behind her ear. “I’m not a great leader. That’s not the goal of what I’m putting together. I won’t be the one who shepherds them into the light. All I ever want is to create a world where everyone can walk their own path.”

“As far as I’m concerned, that makes you a pretty decent leader,” Lee gave him a rare compliment, playing with the tips of the hairs he had touched.

“That means a lot to me.” He straightened up and took a slow breath. “Enough about me. Tell me something about you, Lee Magus.”

“Like what?” Lee leaned down further on the railing. “I’m not like you. I’m not interesting. Sure, my parents are interesting. Even my siblings are greater. Magnus is admired by everyone for having overcome his lack of talent with dedication. Stefanie found her calling elsewhere and is now an influential person in New Atlantis. I’m just an introverted schoolgirl. Everything of note that ever happened around me happened because of someone else…”

“Does that bother you?” John wondered.

“Funny thing that, it hasn’t, until a couple weeks ago, now it does.” Lee looked up to him. “Turns out I do want to do something with my life. I just have no idea what that is. Got to thank Stirwin and Beatrice for that one.”

“I hope you find that something,” John said.

“I got a couple of ideas.” Lee tapped the Mario theme song with her fingers. “For a start, I want to add love, cuddles and deep-contact cuddles to my private life. You know, replace masturbation with a dude who keeps my interest… sad that I can’t find someone like that.”

“Yeah, real shame,” John hummed. “What if you theoretically managed that though?”

“I guess I’ll actually use all of that talent I have and see to it that people remember me not for who I’m related to or because I look good, but because I’m awesome.” Lee grinned, as they crossed through the barrier of the Guild Hall. “…Also, I’m incredibly hot now.”