The 3:10 to Magnolia

[Kotone]

Today was going to be nothing short of interesting. That was what the dragon slayer with the long brown hair thought as she waited awkwardly with her new future date. Kotone Hoshino had been told she and her old friend and rival Hannah Jaymes were going to be accompanying Kade on a mission. She’d gladly accepted, and even agreed to come at the time Kade had asked him to come. What she hadn’t counted on was suddenly being in a… well, she supposed it wasn’t a relationship exactly. She wasn’t the most clear when it came to dating. It was a date though.

Kotone had been a combination of happy and incredibly nervous since she and Kade had made plans for the near future. She wore a blush on her face nearly every time she glanced at Kade. It didn’t exactly embarrass her, but it was odd, and Kotone had no idea how to deal with it. So, once they’d finished what they’d wanted to talk about, Kotone had gotten a lot quieter, putting her hands in her pockets and standing against the wall next to Kade, trying to act casual. She occasionally made a comment or asked a question, but it wasn’t nearly as talkative as before.

Now she just had to get through the mission today. She needed to focus. Focusing was hard when she had a guy on her brain who was near enough that her enhanced senses could smell his presence. She let out a sigh after holding her breath for a moment. “Breath Kotone…” she muttered, trying to calm herself, but also blushing a bit as she realized Kade had probably heard that. She hoped Hannah would get there so they could get the show on the road…

Word Count: 293/1500

[Kade Lazarus]

For all the people who thought dragon slayers were these touch, inhuman, superhuman, amazing boulders of power and fighting ability… this particular day happened. It happened and it was weird. Kotone, stoic and combative, was standing near Kade right now, telling herself to breathe. He could tell how anxious she was. He could practically feel the anxiety. He had gotten here early to ask her on a date, she had agreed, and now here they were. Waiting… for something. Technically they were waiting for Hannah, but Kade felt more like they were waiting for some knife to cut through the air and make things normal again. Maybe he was just imagining that.

He took down his pony tail, pushing more hair back and putting it up again. He’d been letting it grow out, and really didn’t care to get it cut. He probably should have cared. That didn’t mean he should cut it, but he should care. The only reason he cared about his hair right now was wondering what Kotone thought of it. He busied himself thinking of what he would do with her on their date. A picnic somewhere, and a play. He was going to make sure there was something cold for her to eat. She like the cold. It made sense. He just liked being in the sunshine. He would be content as long as it was a sunny day out. Today was a sunny day, but he felt nervous.

Kade didn’t say anything to Kotone. It was awkward enough… more awkward in silence, but okay, he couldn’t really do much about it. Just… think about the food you’ll make. I wonder what she likes… Okay, try that… see if it helps. She’ll probably just be happy with the effort, so stop worrying… This was weird.

300/1500

[Hannah Jaymes]

Hannah was taking her time. She had time to make it, and not worry too much. She was still tired from last night and didn’t want to rush and stress. Stress wasn’t good for anyone, so why should she stress herself? She took her time walking down the street, and bought an apple from a street vendor. It was good, not great but good. No need to rush right? Hannah was wearing her typical attire, boots, jeans, tank top, and leather jacket. Classy as always. When she got offered this job she took it. She always loved money and why not? Kade and Kotone? Both were cute, and one was nicer than the other, so not too bad. She could stand them both, especially since Kotone had cooled off.

Hannah eventually rounded a corner and saw the two standing there. She walked up to them, still eating her half gone apple. ”Hey, what’s up?” She noticed the tension in the air and wanted to poke at it and see what was going on, it was hard for her to resist, really hard. She really wanted to ask what happened before she got there, but held back. She didn’t need to be nosey, ah screw it. ”So… why does this feel tense all of a sudden? Something I miss?” She hoped whatever it was was good. She had no idea Kotone liked Kade. She hadn’t seen the two of them together until now. It was a small world apparently. If she found that out though she would so have to poke at that more.

263/1500

[Kotone]

Why did the air feel so tense? Well, that was certainly something to ask. Something Kotone wasn’t sure how to explain to someone like Hannah. She looked over at Kade for a moment before she looked back at Hannah. “Oh, hey Hannah,” Kotone greeted, clearly off-kilter after the events that had just happened earlier. She scratched her nose, blushing nervously, glancing back at Kade and assuming a much girlier nervous stance than normal, hands clasped in front of her lap before she crossed them again and looked away from both of her companions. “Kade asked me to go on a date with him…” she mumbled loud enough to be heard, but still rather quiet.

She didn’t look back for a moment, still blushing. She was so vulnerable right now it practically hurt. It was happy. It was exciting. It was new. It was terrifying. It was a whole lot of things and it made her stomach churn with butterflies that threatened to burst out of her. “But anyway,” she changed the subject quickly, unable to figure out what to do with such a personal subject that was being indirectly asked about. “Now we’re all doing… something.” She frowned. Had she been told what they were doing? She was sure it was a job of some sort, but she hadn’t been told anything else. Had she? Man, she was too distracted by the prospect of dating Kade. She’d have to calm down on the way to whatever they were doing. She was elated. Maybe too elated. She was honestly embarrassed about being so happy, especially in front of Hannah.

[Kade Lazarus]

It was true, Kotone’s attitude had changed. She wasn’t the irritated, defensive girl he’d met. She was more of an adult, more of a woman now. He was proud to be going on a date with her now. While it would have been interesting to take her on a date in the past, he wouldn’t really have wanted to. Why? She was just some cocky girl. Also she was too young for him. Not that things had really changed, but she was different. She was someone who made him more nervous than simply amused. It was… not something he planned to show to Hannah, that was for sure.

When the extremely laze’s faire Fairy Tail member showed up, she was eating. Kade adjusted his posture to something more relaxed. Sure, the anxiety of asking Kotone out was still fresh, but he could pull it together. And he did. And then Kotone just went and threw that all out the window. Really? He blinked at her slowly, but the surprise saved him from any blushing that might have occurred. Really? She just… answered? Wow. Okay, he was going to have that to deal with all day. Not that he was embarrassed, but he could just imagine Hannah poking fun at this. Oh well.

“As far as what we are doing. We are taking a train ride I suspect. There have been bandits causing problems for Virec Pyrstone, so we need to meet with him and discuss the details. So, shall we get going?” he asked, focusing on the details and managing to seem quite casual now, despite being on task. As far as asking Kotone out… well, it wasn’t really Hannah’s business.

581/1500

[Hannah Jaymes]

Wow, that was something. Hannah had expected something to be up. Maybe one of them said something stupid, or there was a wardrobe malfunction. Maybe someone did something awkward in public. But nope, apparently Kade had asked Kotone to go on a date with him. Hannah just stood there looking back and forth between to two, her lips pressed together because she had no idea what to say. She really wanted to poke fun at this, but… it was serious. Hannah might be an a-hole sometimes, but she wasn’t one-hundred percent a jerk. She wouldn’t poke fun, cause Kotone legitimately looked vulnerable. She wasn’t going to be that mean. She took another bite of her apple and realized she was now a third wheel in a way. Well crap…

”Um… wasn’t expecting that… that’s… cool I guess.” That was the most positive and nice she could be when she was slapped in the face with that. So she was just rolling with it. She was about to tell them to have fun, but realized neither said if Kotone had said yes to that date. So that was awkward. ”Trains are cool, bandits not so much… Lead the way mister man with a plan.” Hannah would follow his lead, since he had the details.

[Kotone]

Yeah, it was cool. Kotone had no idea Kade wanted to keep anything on the down low, as far as their date went, but she wasn’t exactly prone to gabbing about it either. She was a secretive girl, like most dragon slayers. She just hadn’t been as good at it as them at some point in the past. “Thanks,” Kotone nodded to Hannah, sticking her hands into her jacket pockets and just kind of staring at the ground. She looked over at Kade after a second, flashing him a quick grin before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath that she let out slowly.

Breath, Kotone. What a time to ask her on a date! She was going to be so distracted by this during their job… if the train didn’t kill her first, anyway. When the three dragon slayers started walking towards their destination, kotone fell in step close beside Kade – perhaps a bit closer than normal, though she wasn’t exactly moving to hold hands or anything. “What’ve you been up to, Hannah?” she asked after a few moments, trying to be friendly. She didn’t even call Hannah one of her usual semi-rude nicknames. “And how do you know Kade?”

[Kade Lazarus]

This was going to be a long day. A very long day. Asking Kotone out felt like it had taken days’ worth of stored energy. Then coming to this job had been draining. Then she told Hannah. Then Hannah acted all… yeah, no. Kade took all of that weird nervous energy and stuffed it down. Very firmly down somewhere in his shoes. None of that. He was professional, he had a job to do, and he was going to do it. While the girls made awkward conversation and followed him, he headed in the direction of Viric.

Unfortunately it took him several minutes to reach the man they were meant to meet. They could see the train station before they arrived. Kade was quiet though. They girls could talk, and he would focus. Kade found the door to a waiting room, holding it open for both of the girls. Inside was Virec, who was waiting for them. He had his shoulder bound from and injury, but still wore all his cowboy attire. Hat, gun in holster. He stood up when they ladies entered the room, and Kade nodded at him before closing the door behind them.

“Are you Virec Pyrstone then?” he asked.

“Yes'ir. Are you the folks coming about the work I need done?"

796/1500

[Hannah Jaymes]

Hannah was so a third wheel right now. It was weird and she didn’t like it. And it was weird seeing Kotone like this. Nice and all. Things were definitely different. That was for sure. ”I’ve been alright I guess…” Hannah said with a shrug. ”I met him outside Magnolia and then again when a store got robbed and we put down the robbers… How do you know each other?” Obviously they knew each other well enough to date. Hannah didn’t mind the walk too much. Moving and feeling awkward was better than sitting still and feeling awkward, probably anyway. She didn’t know, she just felt awkward.

Hannah would be happy when the action started and they could put down some bandits. That was nice and simple. Any problem she could beat away was good. The man they were meeting looked like a cowboy. Nice, it made her miss Roejaster. Now that was on her mind as well. ”Yeah, we’re here about the work. What’s going on exactly? What do you need us to do?” Hannah spoke up and crossed her arms. She wanted more details about this job. Pay, and what they would be punching. She normally wasn’t this anxious to fight, but today she was for some reason.

[Kotone]

It sounded like Hannah and Kade had met in a much more exciting way than simply bragging just to put Kade off and keep him away. She was almost jealous, because a small part of her felt she would have left quite the impression if they’d met while Kotone was chasing down a robber. Then again, she’d been a lot weaker back then due to lack of dedication and practice. She’d actually been at her weakest in years at that time. “I suppose you win good impressions,” Kotone muttered with a roll of her eyes. She stuck her hands in her newer tan coat, suddenly wishing she had a new long coat like her old black one. Her legs felt rather bare without the long jacket trailing behind her.

“I met Kade… because of my friend Ren,” she admitted. “I recall bragging a lot and him probably thinking I was weird even if he won’t say it,” she chuckled. She crossed her arms, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. “But hey, I guess I was right. I do have good looks to make up for everything else,” she told Hannah, waving her off teasingly as she caught up to Kade, standing near him in a relaxed pose, her hands linked behind her back. Her body language was a lot less defensive than it had been when either of her two friends here had met. It helped that she was currently happier than she could remember. At least talking to Hannah had helped keep her mind off of her nerves. “We’re here about the job,” she nodded to the man. “Stopping bad guys is kind of a specialty of ours,” she bragged lightly. Regardless of how much she’d changed, she’d certainly kept her confidence.

[Kade Lazarus]

Hannah felt like a third wheel, of course. Well, he could guess that. He didn’t need her to say it. However he felt it was rather incorrect. He felt like the third wheel. He had random personal information thrown out almost as a greeting, and he was left trying to focus on the job. The girls were making idle chitchat, about him no less, and he was just walking. He was maybe the front wheel of this tricycle. He felt focus on him despite his keeping to himself and being quiet. Oh thank goodness they were around the man giving them their job. Kade was happy to not be witness to a discussion about him and how he’d met people.

So they were meeting Virec now. “Well its good to meet you. I’m Kade Lazarus, from Lamia Scale. My friends are not affiliated with the guild, but that won’t affect the job itself.” He wanted to make a few things clear. He didn’t care they weren’t in his guild, but since it actually was a job sent to Lamia Scale, he felt he should say something. They were with him though, and that meant for today they were representing his guild, among other things.

“A pleasure to meet you ladies,” Virec said with a tip of his hat. They asked about the job, or Hannah did, so he addressed that, “Bandits have been giving this railway a fair bit of trouble. I’m out of commission. Not allowed back on the tracks until I heal up,” he said, clearly not thrilled to be unable to help, “[b]but that is where you come in. You’ll be needed to ride on the train today and deal with any threats that arise on the trip.[/color]”

[Hannah Jaymes]

Hannah was still fighting being ornery. She wanted to say something to Kotone about how that wasn’t all she won, but that might sound like she was insinuating something. She didn’t want to do that. She could say something about how she always won, but that would be braggy, and she didn’t want to do that either. So Hannah just went with a, ”You know it…” statement to Kotone. When Kotone told her story, Hannah couldn’t help it, ”That was sickeningly adorable….” It really was. Hannah could almost feel the cute radiating off of Kotone, it was weird.

But back to the job at hand. The man they were dealing with was polite, even tipped his hat, that reminded her of Roejaster. Job sounded simple enough. Ride the train, stop the robbers. Hannah needed a horse for this, it felt very… cowboy. ”So, you just want us to stop any problems on this trip? No, tracking the bandits to their hideout or anything?” That’s what Hannah would have done to solve the problem. Stop it at the source, but she would do what she was paid to do. If he just wanted this train guarded, she would do that. And maybe they could give the bandits a big enough bruise they would think twice about robbing the train in the future.

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