Protect and Serve

He dialled the number, wondering what sort of introduction he should pull. Instead of saying his name, we skipped immediately to:

[ Calling Panties??: ] …i have your panties.

With a sigh, she accepted the call and brought the phone to her ear, about to ask the caller to identify themselves when they cut her off to speak. Her entire face was burning and it took all her will power to not just slam her phone down.

"No you do not!" she answered quickly instead, eyes clenched shut as though that would make the embarrassment go away. "Whoever you are, I assure you that you do not have my panties in your possession!"

She paused a moment though and thought about the call with a small frown. If he wasn't in possession of her panties, he must be in possession of somebody's. And considering what the paper had said about her...

Forte…. lost her… panties…? W-what!? Rather, they were stolen…? Who… would commit such a deplorable act!? If Forte felt the need to send it into the gossip column, then she must have needed help with this! Of course, being her best friend, he intended to do something about it.

[Forte~♫]: Forte someone stole your… your unmentionables!? Oh, who would do such a horribly lewd thing!?

[Forte~♫]: If you need any help I’ll give whatever assistance I can! You can’t have some strange pervert going around with your underwear after all!!!

[Forte~♫]: I’ll be on the lookout for them! Don’t worry, Forte, we’ll find them! We’ll get through this!

[Forte~♫]: And if I find out who did this I’ll make sure to give them a good talking to! It’s horrible to steal a lady’s underwear – especially one who works so hard to protect the City…!

[to Vish]: no no no! Vish, I assure you that nobody has stolen any of my 'unmentionables'! They are all safely where they belong!

[to Vish]: Why would I even go skinny dipping to begin with? There was absolutely no way I would be in a situation to have them stolen I promise!

[text] FORTE HOW DID YOU LOSE YOUR PANTIES

[text] FORTE YOU WERE SKINNY DIPPING

[text] AND SOMEONE STOLE THEM

[text] THATS SO LEWD OF THEM

[text] I WILL FIND THEM AND I WILL FIGHT THEM FOR HARASSING YOU LIKE THIS

[text] OH YA PS THIS IS POPURI

[to Poppy]: Popuri no! I assure you that I did NOT lose my underwear! And I absolutely was not skinny dipping!

[to Poppy]: I wasn't the one to place that ad, I promise. Please do not fight people thinking that they have my panties! I promise it isn't true!

Seeing the advertisement claiming to be her made her face pale however and she clutched the edges of the paper tighter. Surely nobody would believe she had gone skinny dipping would they? And certainly not that she cared enough about a pair of underwear to advertise their absence in the newspaper!

“J-Just the back,” she choked out, staring at the sand and trying not to let the thoughts of his hands all over her get too carried away. He was simply being helpful in putting the sunscreen on for her: she didn’t need to be thinking so hard about it. “I can d-do the rest myself, thank you.”

His hands on her shoulders were surprisingly nice. Forte felt some of the tension leaving her stance even as her eyes clenched shut, goosebumps prickling along her arms. There wasn’t anything special about the way he was touching her - or there shouldn’t be, anyway - but she couldn’t deny the way it was making her stomach do flips and her heart beat just a little faster. She had time to catch the breath she didn’t realise she was holding when he got more lotion, though it didn’t last long until his hands were on her again.

The way he made her head spin was too much and she wanted to lean back against him for support, have him hold her up while the world finished turning upside down, but she wouldn’t. She didn’t even know if he genuinely felt anything for her or if he was still just messing with her, teasing her like every other girl she saw him with except to a new extreme. No matter how much she wanted to, she wouldn’t let herself give into her own feelings until he knew they would be worth it. She wouldn’t let herself get hurt because she chose to be naïve.

His blue gaze never left Forte, his eyes focusing on the beautiful, blonde in a blue dress before him. Blue. She wore blue. It was as if she was trying to please him. Blue, the color of the water, the color of his eyes, and more importantly the color of her eyes. The color blue often reminded him of her gaze, as silly as it seems. There are plenty of blue eyed people around, including him, but she was special. Carlos’ mind wandered briefly until Forte spoke up once more. A smirk instantly slapped itself across his face. He had to contain himself…somewhat.

“I can remove it myself,” she answered quickly, the idea of him removing it for her sending her mind racing. The suggestion of his hands under her dress, even if just the straps, was somehow even worse. Besides, she had promised he would get to see her in the swimsuit he gave her, right? Forte made Atlas sit, standing on the leash (though it was still quite loose) in a slight attempt to stop him from running off. It would stop him if he really wanted to go, but it was enough for the moment. She quickly gripped the bottom of the short dress, pulling it up and off over her head before she could change her mind.

Vishnal had not been planning on going to the Date Auction, but he had heard that the catering service for the event had suddenly canceled. Apparently they were looking for volunteers to help make food and drinks for the event and Vishnal, being as eager to help as he was, obviously intended to do something about it. It would be a shame if there were no refreshments at the event – after all, what was a party without food or drink – so he would sign up as a volunteer and ensure that the auction-goers would at least have something to nourish themselves with.

The only problem was that cooking was not exactly something he excelled at. That was a fact not even he could deny. He wanted to help, of course! But… he also didn’t want to harm anyone with his cooking…

Thankfully, this would be a joint effort between him and his appointed partner, so hopefully they would be able to make up for whatever shortcomings he had. He scanned the list, and saw that his partner was Forte. Great! Forte was amazing and capable and just about good at everything, so cooking would probably be no problem for her!

He looked up, and coincidentally saw her walking in his direction – probably to look at the partner list, no doubt.

“Ah, Forte!” He called to her happily, waving her over to him. “It appears that we will be partners in this task. Isn’t that wonderful?”

She had been determined to handle any problems the auction encountered though, hadn't she? Even if she wasn't very skilled at cooking...surely even she could manage a couple of the recipes? Maybe she would be lucky and paired with someone who could cook and she would just handle drinks. Even she could make a reasonable pot of tea.

Seeing and hearing Vishnal made a grin spread across her face and she half-jogged over to him. He wanted to be a butler, right? So of course he was trained to cook! He worked at the café too, before it was destroyed, so surely he would be able to handle a couple of dishes? Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she had anticipated.

It was rather impulsive of her to fork out more than half of her current funds for the sake of a date auction, of all things… but she didn’t think of it as a waste. The person whom she placed a bid on was kind to her and they were due for some time together. A date auction may not have been the most ideal for this to be done, but it added a silly flare to it, at least.

She hoped she didn’t appear badly to the other blonde for carelessly buying her.

Having spent most of what she had brought along that day, Margaret opted to simply leave their date for another day. It was quite easy to get a hold of her date as they lived in the same apartment, and if she remembers correctly, she still had tickets to Funland locations from playing games and such.

Taking two of those tickets with her, she gently knocks on Forte’s apartment doors, appearing quite shy as she greets her date for the day. “Hello again.”

They had agreed on a separate day for their 'date' at least, so she wasn't whisked away right after the auction at least. It meant there would be more time to the day too, rather than losing half of it to the auction; the knight had the impression that she would enjoy spending time with the shorter blonde after all.