Chapter 22: Meeting a Maiden
POV Death Rose
Currently it was Friday again, the last day of the first week of second semester, and Death was at the final class of the day, which was Dust Studies with Professor Celestia Peach. Over the previous week, a number of students from other schools were able to choose to attend classes at Beacon if they wanted too, but most of the exchange students instead were tutored individually with teachers that had accompanied them from their own respective schools if they were not on a mission.
Exchange students were not required to take missions, but many chose too. It was entirely optional to accept missions for the exchange students, just like it was optional whether of not they'd attend classes with the Beacon students or with their tutors. It was really only mandatory for them to join with the Beacon students on the first day which was a semi-orientation, and even then the teams that had accepted a mission already were exempted from the requirement to attend.
Death was glad that the final class of the day was about to end, since he had made plans to meet with Amber this afternoon. It was a fortuitous meeting that he'd had last Sunday, and it was a good opportunity to meet and get close to someone powerful and important in this world. He didn't think that people came much more important then one of the four maidens.
"I want an essay on chapters 18 and 19 from all first years by Monday's class" Professor Peach announced "Class dismissed."
Death got up and picked up his Dust Studies book and started to leave class, but spotted Team NDGO as they were on their way out as well, apparently having chosen to attend classes with the Beacon students today. "Hello Gwen." Death greeted the black-haired, brown-eyed beauty by name and smiled warmly.
Nebula Violette, the leader of Team NDGO, was visibly surprised when Death greeted her teammate Gwen, do you know him?"
Gwen looked at Death, seemingly confused "You remember my name from introductions on Monday?" she guessed.
He chuckled and shook his head "Before then. Though that was an interesting coincidence that we met again here." Death insisted to her "Nine years ago, I took a job in Vacuo with my Uncle Qrow, to deal with a particularly nasty bandit tribe. You were among the prisoners that we rescued, and you were really excited to meet real huntsmen. Even though I was officially in training at that time, Uncle Qrow was an officially licensed huntsmen, so you asked him a lot of questions. It was pretty adorable." he reminded her.
Gwen's eyes grew large with surprise "That was....a chapter in my life I did my best to forget about." she confessed.
Dew Gahl and Octavia Ember both put a hand on Gwen Darcy's shoulders to comfort her. In real life the four members of Team NDGO were all gorgeous, though so were his girlfriends, so Death wasn't phased by their looks at all.
"In that case, on behalf of Team NDGO, I thank you for saving our teammate. I am Nebula Violette." the team leader expressed her gratitude.
"I apologize for not remembering you. I do recall the situation, but all the faces and names are a bit of a blur by this point." Gwen Darcy apologized to him.
"It's fine Gwen." Death reassured her, before looking at Nebula "It's fine. I was just doing my job at the time, after all. And, I'm glad to see that you seem to have grown into a fine huntress-in-training" he declared cheerfully before facing Gwen again "Well, I have plans tonight, so I should go, but when I saw you I couldn't resist greeting you properly. I am proud that my intuition about you becoming someone special in the future was correct, since I made sure to remember you because of it."
"And I am surprised that you remember me so well and that you thought so highly of that weak little girl from nine years ago." Gwen chuckled in amusement "Whatever you are planning, have a good day."
Death nodded once more to Gwen before taking off out of the class.
------
A half hour later, Death was standing in the lobby of the hotel where Amber was staying, and he smiled when he spotted the maiden walking over to him "Good afternoon Amber." he greeted her.
Amber nodded and smiled at him "Good afternoon Death. I am a bit surprised that you wanted to meet me so soon. I figured you would make me wait a couple weeks, if you bothered to contact me at all."
"Well, why not?" Death asked her with curiosity "You are a pretty special girl, after all, and I don't want to see anything bad happen to you, so I should take an interest, don't you think?"
"You think I am special?" Amber asked, curious about what he intended by that.
"I was surprised when I met you on Sunday." Death chuckled and offered her his arm "I work with Ozpin, so I know about all the maiden stuff. So while we hadn't met before, when I was introduced to you I understood your identity. I promise to treat you like an individual, though. I'm pretty sure it must get pretty annoying being treated like you are different after a while, so I chose not to mention it last week, and I promise to get to know Miss Amber Quince as a person.."
After a moment of surprise, Amber nodded but hooked her arm around his "So you didn't just appear to babysit me? You did say you don't want anything bad to happen to me, after all."
"I did not know I'd meet you at Junior's Club." Death insisted "I was asked by my friend Neon to show her a club in Vale, which is why I just happened to end up there. And as for my concern, there have been unusual thefts around Vale that I suspect are connected to Salem, so I suspect that her followers might come after you soon. It is a nagging feeling that I just can't help have in the back of my mind. I suspect that Ozpin probably has similar fears as well. Why would he be having you stay inside Vale otherwise?"
"It is true, that he has insisted that I remain within the confines of Vale lately." Amber admitted to him with a sigh "He probably has some babysitters assigned to keeping tabs on me as well, but I'll take your word for it that you are not one of them."
"I'm pretty good at my job. If I wanted to hide from you and watch you in secret, I wouldn't have approached you to begin with." Death started walking alongside her out of the hotel "If you do not object, I would like to keep one of my avatars near you as much as possible to alert me to any trouble that might pop up for you, but we can discuss that whenever you are feeling up to it. No rush. I don't want to do it behind your back, though. I'd rather openly be there so it is easier to watch your back."
"Avatars? Is that your semblance?" Amber asked as Death hailed down a cab for them and it came to stop before them.
"Nah. My semblance is...well...insane regeneration. And under specific circumstances, I can share it with other people." Death admitted as a cab stopped before them "It's a bit embarrassing to say though."
"More of a third date secret?" Amber asked him playfully.
Death smiled at Amber and opened the door and let her step into the cab, separating the connection that had been between their arms when she did, and then stepped in it after her and took a seat next to her.
"Soo..." Amber arched her brow a bit as she examined Death "Are you going to tell me where we are heading now? You were quite mysterious about it when you asked to meet me today."
"The Vale Aquarium" Death said to the cab driver, then smiled at Amber "Nothing 'fishy' about the Aquarium, is there?" he asked playfully.
"That's fine. I haven't visited the Aquarium since I was a little girl, so it could be fun." Amber acknowledged with a chuckle as his little play on words "And after that, where will be be going?"
"The Vale Observatory." Death insisted "I thought a little stargazing might be fun. Tonight is supposed to be clear skies, so it's perfect for that."
"So, you are going with a classy evening." Amber acknowledged and seemed to examine him carefully "Wouldn't most men go with something like Junior's club in order to get more intimate physical contact with the girl that they are trying to get closer too?"
"Perhaps if I was a sex-crazed fool." Death chuckled and again hooked his arm around Amber's, linking at their elbows "But my intentions with you are pure. I have no intention of trying to force a relationship upon you. For now, I just want to get to know you better, and to make sure no one harms you."
------
POV Amber Quince
Death's date idea was pretty interesting to her. She was a bit in shock that he knew about her being the Fall Maiden, but after that she came to accept that while he knew of her, he had not known she was in Vale and had not expected to meet her. It truly was a coincidental, and perhaps fateful, meeting.
When she asked about his age during the cab ride, she was surprise again to learn that he was seventeen, as she had guessed he'd be in his early twenties by his appearance, but he was a faunus, she assumed, so perhaps a variety that aged a bit faster, though she was not certain what kind of faunus he was, and she didn't ask him either. She thought asking that would be a bit rude.
Amber was not one of those judgmental fools that treated faunus as lesser beings, so to her it did not matter if he was a human or a faunus, she only cared about who he was as a person, and he wasn't just trying to get into her pants, which she found to be respectable. She found most of the men she had dated in the past to be fairly shameless in their pursuit of her body, so naturally the relationships did not last.
She could certainly enjoy a night at clubs dancing and having fun, but that didn't mean it was the only way to have an enjoyable time. Something classy like the aquarium and the observatory really appealed to her for some reason. Jokingly she told herself that it was probably because her grandfather had been the King of Vale.
Not that it had mattered to anyone now. The monarchy of Vale was no more, and she was an ordinary girl if not for her being the Fall Maiden. She noted that Death probably didn't know of her connection to the once royal family, but she was just fine with that, because she wanted him to treat her like a person, not like a Maiden or a Princess. He already knew that she was a a Maiden, and still treated her in a manner she liked, but what if he found out about her grandfather?
That was not a chance that she was willing to take just yet. He might not have been actively seeking a romantic relationship with her, but by the end of the evening she decided that she would pursue things with him.
He was a bit young, even if he didn't physically look his age, but he seemed mature enough, and he was certainly handsome in spite of his unusual appearance from his presumably faunus heritage. She felt that if she ended up with him, she could be fine with it.
He mentioned having multiple girlfriends, though, and Amber was not sure how she should feel about that, but since he wasn't actively trying to seduce her she didn't think she could really complain. She decided to try to meet these girlfriends later, and see what kind of relationship the girls had with each other.
In the end, even if she was developing feelings for Death, Amber decided she would not pursue a relationship with him if his other 'girlfriends' got along very poorly or if the environment around them felt toxic. She did not want to get knee deep in teenage angst even if he did seem a bit like her Prince Charming at this time.
------
POV Death Rose
Death brought Amber back to her hotel room around 2 am. They had stayed late at the Observatory after getting permission and help with using the telescope to observe far away stars, and one of the employees even found a comet for them to look at. Death felt that he was most impressed by the comet, though the stars were all fun to see as well.
He also judged that Amber had a good time as well "Tonight was great." Death said to Amber as they stood outside her room.
"I found it to be fun as well." Amber chuckled "I guess I can let you shadow me with that avatar of yours, since you want to do it openly. Call me anytime and lets hang out again."
Death nodded and smiled "Of course. And next time I'll plan to bring you to train with my friends and my girlfriends, but I have to time it for when Velvet isn't on a mission since she is an upperclassmen, if you don't mind joining in on our training."
"That sounds fine" Amber admitted and smiled, since she was wanting to meet his girlfriends anyway, though he did not know that "I don't mind training with all of you."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone