(Pov Jason)
The old barn smelled like a combination of hay and old grease. There might not have been hay in it for years, but the smell had become ingrained in the walls and was as much part of the building now as the floorboards were. A drop of dirty water fell on Jason's forehead as he dragged himself under the tractor. The wrench lay heavily in Jason's hand as he twisted the bolt above his head. The angle made Jason's wrist ache as he put as much weight as he could into it. Jason's hand slipped. A deep metallic clang rang out throughout the barn as Jason's elbow was sent flying into the front axle.
“Heck Shit!” Jason winced as he clutched the inside of his elbow.
“Wow, language there. Wouldn't want you to accidentally say something bad now, would we?”
Cradling his aching elbow to his chest, Jason used his arms and legs to pull himself toward the voice. By the tractor, Samantha stood looking down at him.
“Hey, Mom."
Her eyes settled on his wrist, and her eyebrows furrowed. “What happened?”
“My hand slipped when I was trying to twist a bolt. I knocked it on the axle. I will be fine.”
His mother knelt down, and locks of her chestnut hair fell in front of her face, not being tied up in her messy bun. “Let me see.”
"It's fine, Mom, I didn't hit it that hard," Jason said, keeping his eyes fixed on the tractor door.
“Let. Me. See.” His mother used that tone, not angry or even strict, just firm.
“Yes, ma'am." Jason said as he extended his arm to his mother.
Her hands were gentle as she gripped his arm and poked slightly at his wrist. Jason winced. “Well, it's not broken, though that is an ugly bruise, young man. No bleeding though, so that's good.” His mother sighed. “You need to be more careful.” She let go and stood up while letting out a deep breath
“Come on, we need to put ice on it. The tractor can wait until later, or tomorrow, for that matter.” His mother motioned for him to follow, though there was still a hint of steel in her voice. Jason had a feeling it was best to follow his mom, though the throbbing ache blossoming in his wrist certainly didn't make the choice difficult.
Jason winced as the pack of frozen peas, packed in a towel, touched his wrist.
“That's what I thought. Just keep it on there a little ok.” His mother smiled at him before leaving the kitchen. Jason leaned against the counter and sighed. Why on today of all days did he have to hurt his wrist? To be frank, he had only started working on the tractor because his hands couldn't stop fidgeting this morning.
Jason rested his wrist on the counter, balanced the makeshift ice pack on top of it, and pulled out his phone. 10:32, he had an hour and a half left before he got picked up. His eyebrows furrowed. This couldn't be a date, could it? If that were the case, shouldn't he be picking her up?
(Pov Jasmine)
10:32 Jasmine put her phone back in her pocket. She had roughly an hour and a half until she was supposed to pick up Jason for their date. Twelve might be a bit early for a Saturday, but she really did want to see the area, and doing so at night wouldn't work. Plus, it was a nice way to segue into lunch or something similar.
Jasmine turned, picked up the pressure washer, and began rinsing the soap from her car. The machine hummed. Water suspended in sunlight formed a small rainbow. Satisfaction grew as the rinsed dirt revealed the shining, clean, red-painted metal.
It took her about five minutes to wash off all the soap and another ten to wipe off most of the water with a large microfiber cloth. With the temperature in the low forties, it was quite comfortable; she had never been too much of a fan of high temperatures. Once you were over the seventies, things started getting… uncomfortable. No, the forties carried their own charm, as the air was still cold enough to be noticeable when inhaled, which made the entire car-washing ritual rather meditative.
“Hey Jasmine!” A voice sounded from the entrance to the old lodge behind her. She really did need to find a new name for the place. The old lodge didn't sound like a palace where people lived. Places did need names, if only for the people who lived there.
Turning around, Julie was standing in the entrance.
“Hey Julie, what's up?” she said, returning to wiping the last of the water off the car.
“Do you know how to fence?” Her voice held a tone of light curiosity.
Jasmine looked back at Julie, raising an eyebrow. “I do know how to fence, at least in the more HEMA adjacent styles, more so than regular fencing.” She hesitated for a second. “And harness fencing."
“Why… not regular fencing? And what's harness fencing?”
“Well, regular fencing rewards a hit even if it would kill you. That's kinda counterintuitive in my opinion. Harness fencing is more my rough translation of a German word. It's basically armored melee combat, like plate armor.”
Julie gave her an appraising look. “Are you any good?”
Jasmine scoffed. “I have been at it since I was five, I think. So yeah, I am probably above average, though it's been a few weeks since I've really been able to practice. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I was walking past some of your stuff and saw this stunning sword there. I also really liked learning that part of melee back during training. So I figured I would just ask if you wanted to spar sometime if you did do fencing, that is.”
Jasmine smiled up at Julie. “Yeah, that sounds fun. I think I have some extra training gear you could use. But I can't today, I have a date.” She thought for a second there might have been a hint of smugness sneaking its way into her tone. “Actually, Julie, since we would be doing that. Could you help me with my marksmanship? I am, let's just say, subpar, and I could really use the pointers.”
“Yeah, it's been a while since I last went shooting, so that could be fun. But great, then we can find a day when Sam's not here or get someone to watch him and try it.” Julie turned to leave. “Ohh, and good luck on your date, Jasmine. Tell me about when you get back? I wanna know how it went and who the lucky guy is.”
Jasmine chuckled lightly. “Will do, Julie.”
(Pov Jason)
In the bathroom mirror, looking back at him, Jason studied himself dressed in one of his nicer shirts, though it was by no means formal wear. It was simply nice. He wasn't sure why he felt like his heart was in his throat.
Picking up his phone, he saw it was 11:50. This couldn't be a date; it was too early for that, and it should be switched around. Still, Jasmine had important… connections to his family. The last thing he wanted was to offend her or something. She didn't seem like a bad person, but he didn't know her. And given the stakes. Better safe than sorry.
His parents were out, so there wouldn't be any questions on that front, and his sister was buried in her research again. He hadn't quite gotten her to talk much about the details, but he figured it was nice she had a goal. Jason would eventually take over the farm; he knew that. He didn't really mind either; the farm had been in the family since the area was settled. They just needed to get back what they lost a decade ago, and then it would be fine. The question was just how to do that.
As he walked down the stairs, Jason started double-checking his stuff. He could feel his stomach rumble. Right, I should eat a bit. Just as he turned to walk towards the kitchen, he heard the sound of car wheels on gravel outside.
Looking out the window, he saw a red sedan, an old one at that. Well, damn it. Jasmine was in the driver's seat as the car came to a stop in front of the front door. He would just have to do this hungry.
Walking back up the stairs, he knocked on the door to his sister's room and cracked open the door when she acknowledged it. “I'll be gone for a few hours. Call me if anything happens.”
Sophia didn't even turn her head from her laptop as she waved him goodbye. “Yeah, sure, see ya.”
“Ok, Bye, Sophia.”
As Jason walked down the squeaky stairs, he heard a knock at the front door. Opening the door, Jasmine was standing there. A small yet polite smile on her lips. She was in a dark pencil skirt and a blue blouse, which was unbut… Don't look, Jason, don't be rude. He had to put some effort into keeping his eyes on her face.
“Hey, Jasmine.” He said, putting on a polite smile and hoping she didn't notice.
For a split second, Jasmine's smile seemed to take on an almost smug look, but it vanished as quickly as it came. “Hi Jason, are you ready to go?”
Jason smiled politely. “Yeah.” Jason hesitated for a second as he started putting on his shoes. “So where do you wanna see first?”
As he got back up, Jasmine motioned towards the car, and as he followed her, she said. “I don't know what's around here, so that is entirely up to you.”
“Right… obviously.” Jason cringed inwardly. Of course, she didn't know what was around here; that was the whole reason for this.
Jasmine sped up slightly, headed for the passenger side. “Let me get that, the door can be kind of weird.” Jason didn't really get why he might need help with the door. It looked like a regular door handle. Oh, sure, it looked old, but by no means odd.
“Sure.” Jason said with a hint of hesitation in his voice. As Jasmine opened the door, there was no strange motion or mechanism involved.
Jasmine held the door open and motioned for Jason to enter the car. Wasn't he supposed to do that? “The door can be a bit finicky to close, too.” She said with a light shrug. Though the smile on her face again seemed to flash ever so briefly with another emotion.
“Ok.” Again, his voice held a hint of hesitation as Jason got in. As the door closed, there didn't seem to be any strange motion involved, and he could feel a faint heat start to spread across his cheeks. A strange, ever-so-faint warmth was in his chest, but he wasn't quite sure what emotion it was.
(Pov Jasmine)
As Jasmine got into the car, the smell tickled her nose. It was a smell she recognized well. Looking over at Jason, a small blush had spread across his face. The slight amount of color actually played quite nicely with the way his hair framed his heart-shaped face and the cream shirt. It made his features seem softer, slightly undermining the darker circles under his eyes and the slight hollowness in his cheeks.
The boy seemed exhausted or, at the very least, deeply worried about something. His gaze kept drifting, never settling for long. She couldn't have that, HE should get a break from what was worrying him. Especially here and now. The gods only knew if her mother knew she went on a date with a boy and then didn't try to alleviate his worries, she would probably never hear the end of it. Or she would get sent to some position in the ass end of nowhere supervising a dozen newly turned fledglings for the next 20 years.
Jasmine could feel a tug on one side of her lip, pulling it into a half smile, before she could suppress it. She figured it would have made her look exceptionally pleased with herself. She had an idea, and it was going to be fun.
Just after she had put the keys in the ignition, she turned fully towards Jason. She looked him up and down, taking care to make the action slow enough that he noticed but not so slow as to be odd. The boy was sensible enough to have put on a jacket, but it was still open. “That shirt looks really good on you, Jason.” She said in a tone that was as casual as she could manage.
“Tha… Thanks?” Jason said, though, given the way his gaze moved between her and the shirt and the furrowing of his eyebrows. She was fairly certain he didn't believe her, at least not fully. Still, the blush seemed to deepen, and with it the scent got ever so slightly stronger.
Turning the key and starting the car, she looked back at him. “So where should we go first?”
Jason considered the question for a second and was about to speak when a low rumbling sound emanated from his stomach. While Jason's blush had previously been a slight hint of color, it was now a deeper, vivid red. The scent that had been present in the car got stronger and pulled at the weak but ever-present hunger in Jasmine. Jason shrank slightly, and his eyes were wide, locked on a seemingly rather interesting part of the dashboard.
Forgetting lunch had been a bad idea, not that it was too long since she drank what was really important, it really wasn't. But being hungry on top of the fantastic smell coming off the boy in the passenger seat would get… annoying. The boy wasn't in any danger; SHE wasn't some fledgling who couldn't keep it in their pants or feed off someone without taking too much. Or, in even worse cases, stop themselves.
Luckily, it seemed Jason was in a similar, if not the same, situation. “You know I actually forgot lunch, and I am feeling kinda peckish. Is there anywhere we could eat?”
Looking at her, Jason seemed to put some effort into keeping his tone normal, though it was still somewhat higher than it had been previously. “Well, there is the bar and grill, but you have been there.” He hesitated for a second. “Ohh, there's Als. It's a small, greasy spoon place on the other side of town. It's not as good as the bar and grill, but if you want something new, then there's that.”
“Sounds great, just tell me where to turn and show the way.”
It took them some twenty minutes to drive to Als. Most of the time was spent on small talk about the area. It was pleasant. Jason knew a lot about the area, though, given that he grew up here, she had expected that. He had also become more animated as time passed, the worries that he had earlier seemingly put aside, if not fully forgotten.
As they approached the door to Al's, Jasmine sped up and opened it. Which earned her a small, polite, if still slightly embarrassed, smile from Jason.
Al's was a very stereotypical American greasy spoon diner; along the counter were actual swivel chairs arranged along a long service counter, and vinyl booths. The place smelled of grease, cigarette smoke, and boiling frying oil. She had lived in America for the last 20 years of her life, and yet for some reason she had never been to a place like this. The place was largely empty with only one cook in the kitchen behind the counter and what had to be a regular sitting in a swivel chair in the middle of the service counter.
She motioned them towards one of the more privately placed booths in the back. The menus were already on the table when they arrived, and they each took one as they sat down opposite each other. The table had scratches along the edges, and there were some stains that must have been washed a thousand times.
Jasmine looked up at Jason. “So what are you planning on getting? I think I will have the burger personally.”
(Pov Jason)
Jason couldn't help himself; it was too easy a target. ”So you won't be having the burger publicly. That might be a little difficult. I am not sure they have any personal places to eat.”
Jasmine chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Ahh, of course, well, if I must, publicly it is then.” Her tone turned less sarcastic. “But what are you considering?”
Jason's eyebrows furrowed slightly. “I think I will be having tomato soup.” The choice was simple: the soup was the cheapest item on the menu. While he was making more money now, nearly all of it went into the savings account he had set up for his sister's college tuition, and the rest paid the rent he had talked his parents into letting him pay. He was fairly certain they had figured it out, but had simply chosen not to say anything about it.
A motion in front of him made Jason look up at Jasmine, who had put her menu down and was looking at him. He couldn't quite place the expression on her face. “You know, Jason, I kinda pressured you into being here. You can order something more expensive. I was planning on paying for the meal anyway.”
As he opened his mouth to protest, Jasmine shot him a look that made the words die in his throat. Ok, she's paying. Taking the menu back up, Jason decided he might as well lean into it.
Looking it over, his eyes stopped on the fried chicken, which had caught his attention the first time. “Then would it be fine if I had the fried chicken?”
A smile spread across Jasmine's face. “Anything you want, Jason. So yes, of course, the fried chicken is fine.”
Shortly after they had decided, the waitress came by and took their order. Jason was pretty sure she was in the year under him, but he wasn't certain.
“So Jason, how has your week been?”
“Good, I was called into work yesterday, which was a mess. But other than that, it's been really good actually… How was yours?” Jason hesitated a bit before returning the question. This felt awkward, and he had no idea what to really say.
Jasmine smiled at him. “Well, that's great to hear. My week was good, I made some, shall we say, important progress on a project, so that was good.”
Cocking his head to the side, Jason asked. “What was the project about?"
Jasmine paused for a second. "It's work-related, so I can't say too much. I will, however, say that it's important to the future of the entire company.” Jasmine took a sip of water. “Why did you take the waiter job, by the way?” The speed at which her tone returned to normal nearly gave Jason whiplash
“Ohh… Ehhh… I just kinda felt a need for a job. There was some stuff I wanted to save for.” Jason scratched the back of his neck.
Jasmine quirked an eyebrow and hesitated for a second as she seemed to search his face. “What was it you wanted to save for?”
“Well, I want to help my sister get into this education college thing. That costs money, so I want to help her with that. And I want to save for some, like, minis I want to paint.”
“That's sweet of you, Jason. I am sure she really appreciates it.” Jasmine sipped her glass of water before continuing. “So what kind of minis do you paint?”
“Well, I don't have any yet, so nothing so far. But I do want to paint some Warhammer minis, especially Imperial Knights. But I have to save up; everyone has to for those tiny giants.” Jason rather explicitly avoided mentioning that he wasn't saving at all. Oh, he hadn't lied about the desire; he truly did want to try playing tabletop, but that would have to wait. He also didn't want to mention that his sister didn't know he was doing it.
“I have heard the name before, but I am not familiar with it. What's Warhammer about?”
Their food had long since arrived when Jason had finally finished the shortest possible explanation of Warhammer 40k. It hadn't really been that short, but he had done the best he could. Though in his defence, Jasmine had seemed very interested as he talked, though he wasn't sure if she was just being polite.
The food smelled fantastic, and Jason couldn't help but be glad Jasmine had managed to get him to order something other than soup. Al's had many good things on the menu, but the soup certainly wasn't one of them.
“So yeah, I had to buy this new training armor after that. Not a lot of people can hit hard enough to dent a breastplate like that, but apparently, they exist. I still won, though.” Jasmine winked at him. Apparently, Jasmine was big into a lot more physical sports, horseback riding, and what she called harness fencing, which she had later said was also called bauhurt. She was good at it, too, if her own stories were to be believed.
He couldn't help but smile; her enthusiasm for the sport was infectious, and Jason was thoroughly infected. “Damn, well I am glad you didn't get hurt then. Though from the sound of it, that might have been your goal.”
“Might have been. The best way to know it was a proper match is when you feel it in your joints the day after.” Jasmine was virtually beaming at him. “How's your chicken?”
Jason made a circular motion with his hand to indicate that he needed to finish chewing before he answered.
“It's fantastic, I haven't had the chicken here before, but it's just fantastic.” Jason took another bite. “How's the burger?”
Jasmine had just taken a bite out of the burger and was putting it down. She made a moaning sound that was just loud enough for him to hear. “Absolutly fantastic
(Pov Jasmine)
After they were done eating, Jasmine quirked an eyebrow and, with a slightly lopsided smile, asked. “So, where should we go now? What's nearby?”
His fingers tapped on the table as Jason considered the question, and after a few seconds, he spoke. “There is one place. It's maybe a five-minute walk from here. There are other places too, just further away from here.”
Jasmine clasped her hands together. She gave him a small smile. “Well, let's pay then.”
Flagging down the waitress and asking for the check, they received an odd look when Jasmine paid. But any thought the girl might have had about it seemed to disappear the second she saw the size of her tip. 30% was far higher than normal, though not nearly as much as she would have tipped Jason. But that was for other reasons.
“Lead the way.” Jasmine motioned towards the door. As she went back out onto the street, the crisp air was still pleasant, at least to her. Jason, however, already seemed slightly chilly. While she would have loved to offer him something to warm up, she simply didn't have anything that wouldn't be odd to any onlookers or to her date himself.
Jason had been right about the walk; it was short, though it took some odd turns here and there. He ended up leading her down the driveway to a parking lot behind what might once have been a clothing store, but was now merely another boarded-up building.
“Ahh, yes, a parking lot, how exciting.” Jasmine couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips.
Jason chuckled. “No, you need to look at the wall over there.” He said while pointing at one of the walls.
Turning towards it, Jasmine saw what he meant. While the plaster on the wall was falling off in places, it was still mostly intact. That alone was perhaps the only saving grace that had preserved the mural someone had painted on the wall. It was old, the color fading in places. The mural depicted a field being tended by farmers, probably sometime before the tractor. The field was placed in a valley, with a river along one side of the wall, at least at ground level. The painter had taken special care to depict how, what had to be the morning sun, was reflected in the water and on some items the farmers carried. Now that she looked at it, she noticed that similar details had been preserved in how the light hit the painting's various features. Was that… Egyptian hieroglyphs?
“That's really cool.”
“Right!!” His tone was filled with warmth and excitement. “The grandad of the guy who ran the clothing store had it painted. I think it was back in the mid 1890s.”
“I am guessing he really liked ancient Egypt?”
“The story is that he was in Egypt in the 1890s and then had it painted when he got back. Nobody really knows why he didn't want something more explicitly Egyptian, but he still decided to include a bunch of hieroglyphs all over the place.” The boy was practically beaming, the excitement clear in his eyes and in the animation of his gestures as he gestured to the mural. “He arranged the things to tell little stories. Some of the old timers talk about them, but you can't really make out most of them now.”
Jasmine nodded as she kept studying the mural. He was entirely right. In multiple places, the hieroglyphs had been arranged to tell small stories in the mural. Though so much of the color was faded and the plaster missing that she couldn't quickly tell what they were.
“Ohh, and look at the hill towards the left there.” Jason pointed towards the left side of the mural. There on the hillside was a mine. It was small, but it wasn't the mine itself that was interesting, but rather the tiny hieroglyphs that appeared to be dancing. Are they doing the polka? How did she even manage that?
Just as she was wondering about the mural, she noticed something strange on Jason's wrist. Softly taking his hand, she pulled it so she could inspect his wrist. It didn't take much force to do so. Gently brushing her thumb along what she could now clearly see was a bruise, and probably a painful one at that.
“What happened?” She looked back up at Jason, meeting his eyes while not turning her face fully up towards him.
The boy looked perplexed, his eyebrows drawn deeply together, and there was hesitation in his tone as he spoke. “Ehh… It's nothing. I just hit it when I was working on the tractor.”
Tuning her face full towards him, Jasmine cocked her head to the side as her eyebrows drew together. “What's wrong, Jason?”
“Nothing's wrong, it's just, I am not used to it.”
“Not used to what?”
He almost shrunk a little, though he didnt make any move to pull away. “Bei… being touched like that, I mean.”
“Not even your parents?”
“No, they do, like, hug me and stuff, at least from time to time. But that's kinda their job. It's not… like this.” Jason's eyes studied her hand as if it were some strange and out-of-place object.
“Do… you want me to stop?” Jasmine's tone was lower, more hesitant as she spoke. She could feel her heart hammer against her chest.
Jason's eyes lifted to meet her, his blush deepening, and a slight smile now playing at his lips. “It's odd… but it's not uncomfortable. So no?”
Jasmine's eyebrow crept up, yet her voice remained small. “You are allowed to say no to me, Jason. Nothing bad will happen if you do. I promise.”
Jason chuckled. “I know, I know. And no, you don't… have to.”
At that, some of the very noticeable tension that had been building in her shoulders let go. She could just go for it, right?
Jasmine was suddenly distracted by the sound of a bottle clattering along the ground just behind them, and the sound of heavy footsteps moving away from them.
That, unfortunately, ended the moment. Just then, the promise she made to Rhea came to mind. She had originally been unsure whether to send that image. That insecurity was gone. She absolutely wants to see if there's a possibility of more with Jason, and she has no intention of breaking her old promise to Rhea.
Fishing out her phone, she found the camera function. “Hey Jason, do you mind if I take a picture of you with the mural, and then you take one of me? I just want a memory of this, that's all.”
He considered it for a moment, seemingly unsure. “Yeah, sure, we can do that.” He said, though the hesitation in his tone made her think he found the request odd. Which was fair enough; to anyone else, it would be an odd request.
(Pov Jason)
Helping Jasmine get to know Fairvern had been fun; he still had places to show her, but she had apparently gotten an urgent call. It was just as well if they kept going; it might drag on for longer than was comfortable; he didn't know her too well after all. She had sent him the photos, which, while a little strange, were still nice enough. But it more importantly meant that she now had his phone number, not simply him having hers.
Jasmine had opened the car door for him, which gave him a strange feeling. Not bad, but he couldn't quite place it. As he stepped out of the car and started to walk towards the door, Jasmine followed a few steps behind him. Stopping just before the stairs up to the entrance, he turned around.
Jasmine was close, deeper into his personal space than most people would get. Though he didn't feel uncomfortable.
“Hey Jason, could I see your hand again?” Jasmine said, her eyes wide. Yet it appeared she had come to some kind of conclusion tough on what he had no idea.
“Yeah, Sure.” He just managed to say it before she had taken the hand with the hurt wrist again and was slowly brushing her thumb over his bruise again. It felt… hot, not just her own skin but a deeper, pleasant heat that seemed to set itself in his wrist. She then took a careful step closer.
“What are you doing?” Jason asked, his heart rate skyrocketing. Though he still noticed himself leaning towards her.
“What people do when they have a good date. Do you want me to step away?” She said her voice was huskier than earlier, in a far more noticeable way.
“N… No.” Jasmine had gotten even closer, and before Jason could properly feel it, she had managed to move her face up to his. It was soft as her lips brushed against his. He could feel a blush spread across his face as it felt like his heart was in his throat.
As Jasmine stepped away, a slight smile played on her lips, but the smug look on her face made her look annoyingly pleased with herself.
“Bye, Jason.” She waved as she got back in the car and drove off.
Jason squawked as he turned to walk back inside. Holy shit, it was really a date then. His fingers brushed his lips as he whispered to himself. “That was my first kiss.”