vatheon | ♌ A not-date with Saber

Entry tags:

♌ A not-date with Saber

who: Leo and Saber with a surprise visit from Annabeth and Percy
when: May 16th
where: near the coral in the plaza
style: Prose
status: closed

Today was the day. Leo had made plans with Saber last week for a lunch date picnic in the plaza. Yes. A date. At least he believed it was one despite Saber ~~ignoring~~ not picking up on all his flirting.

He'd spent the last couple days pulling the ingredients he needed but couldn't get a hold of elsewhere from his tool belt. These tacos had to be the best ones he's ever made if he was going to impress Saber. The morning of, he pulled everything out of their fridge (he'd marked all the packages with "DO NOT TOUCH! FOR SABER" so that Percy and Annabeth wouldn't use any of them. He had several kinds of meat - fish, shrimp, beef, chicken and pork - as he wasn't sure what kind of filling Saber would prefer; plenty of vegetables, cheese, tortillas and the ingredients to make fresh salsa and guacamole.

After he prepared everything he packed it into a basket he'd gotten from one of the locals along with everything they'd need to enjoy said tacos. It barely fit and he started to realize maybe, just maybe he'd made too much food. Oh well, any leftovers he could bring home for Percy and Annabeth. Content that he had everything he needed, he grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and headed out the door.

He made it to the plaza before Saber and set up the picnic for them, laying out the rather impressive spread of taco fixings. He sat there waiting for her, checking his reflection in one of the spoons to make sure he looked awesome for his date.

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Usually Saber was the one that was early, but it didn't seem to be the case today. The knight was easily able to see Leo from far away, and as soon as she spotted him, she made her way over to him.

"Greetings," Saber said as she came to the edges of the blanket. There was a bundle in Saber's arms, as she had brought something, too. The chilled and slightly damp towels were to keep the wine as cool as long as possible.

The King of Knights' gaze was already looking at the various plates and items laid out. This looked.. quite impressive, she had to admit.

"Ah, would you mind telling me what country tacos originate from?"

Saber took to one of the open spots on the blanket, sitting down on her knees and tucking her feet beneath her bottom. Despite having so much armor on, she was able to sit without taking up too much space. The wine was set down beside her carefully. She brought both a chardonnay and a merlot.

Edited (apostrophe oopsie.) 2013-05-17 06:21 (UTC)

"Yo!" Leo said in reply.

"Same place as me. Originated in Mexico, but the state of Texas improved them." He tried to look as suave as possible as he told her. "My family has lived in the United States for a few generations, but my ancestors were from Mexico."

He eyed the bottles of wine as Saber set them down. He'd never had wine before. Never had any alcohol. Just last week he'd gone and told Axel he hadn't and didn't plan to. But now the opportunity was right in front of him and he'd look like a wuss if he didn't. A rude wuss. Saber would probably feel rejected if he said no. He decided to keep his mouth shut about the wine and to wait and see what she did. She might have brought it for only herself... but two bottles was a bit much for one person.

"Mexico, I see.."

Saber brought her hands to her lap to pull off her gauntlets, revealing the slender and feminine hands within. They were hardly fit to be wielding a great sword, but destiny was odd like that.

"Hmm," she mused out loud, closing her eyes for a moment. She then looked down towards the various plates and ingredients. "..Would you please show me how to put this together, Leo?"

The knight's stomach was practically growling at the display of food, but she was one to always eat properly and with manners. So, if there was a particular way to put together and eat a taco.. she certainly wanted to know.

"Of course." Leo pointed to the tortillas. "First you take one of these. It's the shell that holds the ingredients to make the taco. You can also have crunchy shells, buuuuut, I thought these might be better for your first time. A little less messy." He realized he was rambling and pointed to the assortment of meats, naming each one. "I wasn't sure what you might like, so I made plenty of options."

He took one of the tortillas for himself, setting it on his plate. "So you pick what meat you want and place it in the center of the tortilla." He decided to go for the beef and spooned some of it onto his. "Then you toss on a bit of cheese, and whatever veggies you want." He then pointed to the bowl of salsa, "This is salsa, it's tomatoes, onions, peppers and some seasonings. It adds some extra flavor and spice to the tacos." Next up was the guacamole, "This is the same concept as the salsa, with mashed avocado and some slightly different seasonings."

"Once you've got everything you want on it, you fold your taco in half and then eat it like this," he picked up his taco and took a big bite out of it.

"It's an entire meal and also self-containing," Saber nodded, obviously content with the idea of this. It was efficient and seemed quite interesting.

Stopping herself before she reached for her tortilla, Saber reached back to the bottles of wine and set them to the middle of the table. She left the towels wrapped around the bottoms of them to help keep them at an acceptable temperature.

"I brought this, if you would like some."

There was about ten plastic cups, ones Saber had just been lucky enough to find in her cupboards from the previous occupants. If she hadn't found these, then formal wine glasses it would have been. This seemed better for an outside picnic, though.

And then Saber began to construct her taco, starting with shrimp and adding just about every vegetable and topping possible. She didn't pile the ingredients, at least, but she wanted to try them all.

So she was in fact offering him wine. Luckily he never went anywhere without his tool belt and asked it for a corkscrew. He'd never used one before, but it was pretty easy to figure it out. He was a son of Hephaestus after all. A simple mechanical device like this was as natural to use as a screwdriver.

"Uh, which should I open?" he asked in the least smooth way possible as he watched her concentrate on making her taco.

Annabeth and Percy didn't mean to crash Leo's date.

Really and truly! Originally, they were just walking along the plaza together, arm in arm. It was a nice day underwater and now that they were back in the bubble, Annabeth had wanted to check out the local architecture in Vatheon.

She had seen the the food packages in the fridge intended for Saber but had wisely said nothing, figuring that Leo had somehow met the knight too and wanted to cook for her. However, she'd assumed the cooking part would happen at their house, not in the plaza.

"Oh hey look," she said to Percy as they almost stumbled over the two of them on the blanket. "Let me do the talking," she hissed, before turning to the others. "Leo! And Saber, hi! Fancy seeing you two here."

Hey, Percy doesn't know anything. He's just off for a walk with his beautiful girlfriend in this awesome underwater bubble city. He loved the way her face lit up when she talked about buildings.

But then Leo! With a girl. Percy smiled to himself. Good for you, bro. He was perfectly content to let Annabeth do the talking here, particularly since she seemed to know the girl in question.

"Hey," was all he said.

There's a remorseful look on Saber's face as she sets down the recently finished taco on her plate. Straightening herself and sitting upright, her hands move to her lap as Saber looks upwards to the newcomers.

"Greetings," the knight responds to Annabeth with a gentle smile. She looked from Annabeth to the gentleman beside her, and then nodded. "We haven't met. I'm called Saber. Pleased to meet you."

Leo was a little frustrated. This was supposed to be a date. And Saber hadn't even gotten to take a bite of her taco yet. Did Percy and Annabeth have to walk over to them? But he kept it to himself and grinned at his friends. After all, he hadn't told them he had a date...

"'Sup guys!" He waved before going back to the bottles of wine. He still wasn't sure which to open, so he opened the one that was closest to him.

Annabeth could sense Leo's frustration and she felt bad. Perhaps they could just keep this to a few social niceties and not interrupt this little tryst too much.

"Saber, this is Percy, my boyfriend. Leo, I thought you didn't know the King! Did you meet recently?"

"Nice to meet you, Saber," Percy said, still letting Annabeth do her thing, although he was feeling a little bad for interrupting.

Saber isn't socially unaware enough to not notice that something is causing a bit of awkwardness in the group, but..

She is socially unaware enough to not realize why.

"Well, why not join us?" the knight asks the two who are standing. "I did bring two bottles of wine and glasses, which is excessive for only two. And I am sure Leo wouldn't mind sharing with all of this food he prepared. What do you think?"

Saber then looks to Leo, not really seeing any reason he would be against having his friends join them on such a lovely day.

It took Leo a few moments to catch up on the conversation because he'd been stuck on Annabeth calling Saber...

"King Arthur? But you're a girl, right?" His face went pale, had he somehow managed to have used the right sort of pickup line the day they met? Did she actually have a sword in her pants and not the weapon kind?

He fumbled with the bottle, almost spilling it over everything but catching it quick enough that only a little splashed onto his plate. "Um, sure, they can join us." Leo wasn't entirely sure he wanted this to be a date anymore.

Okay now Annabeth really did feel bad; Leo seemed so shaken up! She was sure she'd mentioned Saber and King Arthur being the same person before this, but perhaps not. There was so much going on lately that it was hard to keep track of who knew what anymore, even with their meetings.

"Oh, we couldn't possibly join you. This is obviously... I know Leo made all this food especially for you, and we wouldn't want to intrude, would we Percy?"

"Well. of course not," Percy said, eyeing the spread laid before them.

"But there is a lot of food."

And if this was really King Arthur he was kind of interested in knowing more about that.

Saber looks to Leo and nods firmly.

"..Aye, I'm a woman. My name is Arturia Pendragon, the Proud-Knight King of Britain. I was known as Arthur during my reign."

So whether Annabeth and Percy were going to join them or not, Saber's taco was getting .. not in her mouth. She looks down at her taco, and then back up to the two standing.

"Oh, come now. Leo has invited you, and he did prepare the food."

Saber raises the taco to her mouth and begins to eat thoughtfully, quite liking the taste. There's a napkin in her hand beneath the taco to keep it from falling onto her, but she manages to not get any on herself.

Leo let out a huge sigh of relief. Saber was a girl. All was right with the world.

"Wow. That makes the legends so much cooler." And makes Leo like her all the more. She was even more unattainable than he'd previously though. A King. A FEMALE King. Unprecedented awesomeness right there.

He reached for the cups and started pouring the wine for them. So now it was a double date. He could roll with that. "Help yourselves, guys. You were going to get to eat the leftovers anyway."

"Well. If you guys insist." And Percy was right, there was a lot of food. She sits herself down on the blanket, listening with amusement to the conversation. At least Leo didn't seem quite so freaked out now. And Saber was his type, which she noted with a secret smile.

"Thanks." She takes a cup of wine from Leo, pondering whether to drink it or not. They'd had it at ceremonies before but not in social situations. Eventually she takes a sip and starts to gather the makings of a taco together on her plate. "So when did you guys meet each other?"

Percy nodded, impressed. "I guess the legends don't always get things right, do they?"

He sat and immediately began piling up his plate with a huge taco.

"Legends are such for a reason. During battle, Merlin would cast illusionary magic on me so those that were not near would think I was a man."

Enough about herself, though. Saber had finished her first taco, and took the chance while making another one to ask Percy and Leo something.

"Since I already know of the fair Annabeth's titles, may I know of yours?" she asks, looking to Leo and Percy in turn. "That is, if my assumption is right and you are also demigods."

That new taco is done, and the King of Knights is already neatly putting it away into her mouth.

"Yeah, we're demigods, too. Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, god of fire, forges, volcanoes, blacksmiths, technology, craftsmen and sculptors." With one arm to his side and the other draped across his stomach he took a seated bow. That was the way you were supposed to address yourself to royalty, right? Plus, he probably looked pretty suave doing it.

He grinned and took a drink of the wine. It was an... acquired taste, he guessed. It wasn't anything like he expected it to taste, but then he wasn't sure what he expected it to taste like. More grape-y and less like this. "Delicious," he said with a smile before digging into his taco to wash down the taste. Maybe the next sip wouldn't be so bad.

Annabeth smiles to herself when Saber refers to her as such. The knight is quickly becoming one of her most favourite people here, besides the the friends she came with, and she's amused to notice her appetite too.

"It is delicious," she says, taking another sip of wine. It sits in her stomach, making her feel warm as she begins to eat her taco.

Percy saluted, and waited until he was done chewing to introduce himself.

"I'm Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, God of the Sea, Earth-Shaker, Tamer of Horses."

He dove right back into his taco.

"Seriously Leo, this is great," he said with his mouth full.

"Vatheon has turned out to be quite the interesting place to collect names. I have also met Laharl, Overlord of the Underworld."

And no, Saber doesn't doubt that the small, strange boy is what he claims at all.

As the knight muses about Laharl, she finishes her taco and begins to work on her third. As she's making it, though, she takes her time and helps herself to another glass of wine.

"Have you three all found comfortable residence in Vatheon?"

"Thanks," Leo said to the compliments on his cooking. He felt chuffed that everyone was enjoying the food. He'd barely finished his first taco and he noticed that Saber was on her third one. Wow, she could really eat.
Leo pondered that for a moment. No, he'd have remembered meeting a lord of the underworld. Especially since where he was from, Hades was the god of the underworld. "Laharl? Don't think I've heard of him. Guessing he's from somewhere very different than us."

"Yeah, we've got a place in Coral Corral - number 8. It's a pretty sweet pad. Feel free to drop by any time."

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♌ A not-date with Saber

lol'd @ do not touch, for saber

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lol. sorry for the long explanation that you already know.

after leo's next post, should we have anna and percy start?

sure~

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reference for self: saber, leo, anna, percy.

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