It was clear that I had won that fight, and no one can say otherwise, even if the referee called it a draw because of Laos' interference. It was hard to explain to him what exactly we were doing. Many people who don't know anything about the Guardians, or normies, as the twins put it, found it hard to believe that there was a whole different world from the world they knew. Also, for some strange inert reason, it felt wrong telling normies about the Arena and the Guardians.
Urian and Silvia left us after a night of drinks, games, stories and laughter. Putting aside their eccentric behaviour, they were actually chill like that. They left the exact way they arrived, disappearing with a bright flash of light.
"Goodbye dimwit!" Urian exclaimed.
Silvia grinned.
"Next time we meet, we won't go easy on you like we did today!" She said.
Go easy on me? They almost killed me with those moves of theirs, that was not going easy on me, and I still won—not a tie— I won. Fegor sobbed as she watched them go, and her sister comforted her. She literally worshipped those people, you have no idea!
As though it was planned, Laos packed our bags the same morning those eccentric Guardians left, and told us to prepare ourselves for the journey to the new location. He made sure not to breathe a word of the place, even to us. Our farewell to the twins and the few friends we made in that hotel was quite slow and repetitive, they didn't want us to leave.
At the airport, Laos bought three tickets for a plane going to Japan, or Yolo-Kawaii as some people called it, but then he took us into another plane secretly, a plane heading for a completely different location. Perhaps this was his way of being extra careful so that the Null Standing won't find us and the consequences become dire like the previous one. Lemon thought it was clever, going on and on about how they did something similar back in her days as a child assassin. I, on the other hand, thought it was too much stress.
We spent almost ten hours in that aircraft, due to some unpredicted 'turbulence'. Eventually though, we arrived at our destination, Yolo-Star…the city of love.
"Paris?" Lemon asked, looking down from the plane.
"Well, would you look at that!" I said, my neck stretched out to look out the window.
Yolo-Star was the pinnacle of morden day beauty at the time. Skies filled with colour even at night and the aurora. Below the skies was even more magnificent, somewhere along the years after the wormholes vomited other aliens into the earth, one of the species called Geront, accidentally turned the effile tower into reinforced glass. An act that made it even more beautiful than it used to be. In the night time the city lights would reflect from the glass, sending a rainbow of different lights into the atmosphere. It was quite romantic.
Laos booked us a room in a hotel quite hidden, it was a twin hotel. Two buildings that looked identical down to the bathroom towels they used, even the staffs looked almost identical. He reckoned that with this strategy, we would be hard to find, or at least be alerted if they came for us, giving us enough time to leave. Lemon and I, though, had no plans of keeping ourselves hidden by staying glued indoors.
"I'll be taking Lemon out for dinner," I told him five nights after we had settled in.
We sat in the mid-lobby of the hotel, on the fifth floor, at the bar, having a drink like men do, while Lemon laid in the room, reading a book. I believe it was that book Zeno gave me back at the Arena, I never really read that book. We were at our tenth beer.
"Out for dinner?" He asked, dropping his glass of beer on the coaster lying on the counter. "Like a date?"
I cleared my throat. "Yes, a date," I replied.
He slowly smiled, looking around. Honestly I was under the impression that he was going to object to the idea of going out, being that he was supposedly our protector now and had to keep us safe. He had been on high alert since we came to Yolo-Star. But his reply to what I had told him was serendipitous to say the least.
"It's about time!" He replied.
I was shocked and a little bit happy.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, acting clueless as I took a gulp of my drink.
"Captain Edward is going to flip when I tell him this," he replied. "He's always said you were dumb when it came to that part of your life, ignoring all the obvious signs Lemon throws at you."
Obvious signs? Okay, okay, they were not that obvious. Maybe one or two obvious but not all the time. Either way, he was right but I was not going to admit that before him. I clicked my tongue, drinking the last of my beer.
"I'm not that clueless," I said, standing up. "In fact, ladies call me the Love factor."
"Is that so?" He asked as he finished his own glass of beer. "You sure it wasn't, the guy missing the love factor?"
"Ha!" I smiled,.then quickly frowned. "You're not funny."
He laughed hard, standing up and holding my shoulder while I held his. We staggered as we made our way to our suite, singing incomplete country songs from the Kenny Rogers section. We ended up sleeping in one of the elevators, Lemon had to come get us.
The next night, a Saturday night. After my regular Arena visit and successful hunting for power stones, I took Lemon on a date. It was a night I was never going to forget until the day I died. First was the highlight of the evening, Lemon's dress. My lord she looked like a goddess. A pair of black and silver heels carrying that magnificent body whose curves and corners were boldly displayed by the silver short gown she wore. The gown was bare back and short enough with the end a little above her knees. I don't know if it was me, but her almost white skin shine even brighter in that gown.
She had braided her hair and styled it in way that she resembled a princess from a fairytale story. The diamond on her head easily complimented the beautiful necklace she wore and her wonderful grin. She blushed while I stared at her with my jaw dropped.
"I'm glad you like it," she smiled as I helped her put on her long black jacket. "Most of this came out of your account."
Of course she used my credit card. We left for the Don Larmarge restaurant a few blocks from the Hotel, they made some of the finest cuisines. Lemon and I talked endlessly at that restaurant, about work, about the Chief, about the reaction of the customers and the waiters when they saw us walking in. We had captured the attention of the room the moment we entered, people kept glancing while we were taken to our seats. Probably because of how beautiful Lemon looked, but my tuxedo wasn't that bad too.
"This is nice," she said, after we had finished our main course, laughing at a joke we shared simultaneously.
"Hmm," I replied, looking at her. "It's not bad."
"I was wondering when you'd take me on a proper date, Ezra Caster."
I smiled. "I didn't know you felt that way about me, I thought you were just worried about me."
She chuckled. "Is that what they call, the cluelessness of man?" She asked.
"Now hold your horses," I replied with a smile, watching her laugh. "Let's not be too harsh now."
"Hmm," she smiled, leaning on the table with her elbows and resting her cheeks on her hands.
Her eyes fell on me while I twirled the wine in my cup, wondering what brand it was being all purple like that. Then I noticed her staring. Her sparkling eyes caught me off guard.
"What is it?" I asked, looking clueless.
"We should do something fun," she replied. "To remember this day by."
"Oh trust me," I said, still twirling the wine. "I am never going to forget this night."
She stood up and walked over to my side of the table. I looked up at her.
"What?" I asked.
"They have karaoke," she replied.
"Yeah, so?"
She raised a brow, smiling slowly as she observed my facial expression registering my realisation of what she intended to do.
"Oh no!" I replied.
"Oh come on Ezra," she groaned. "They take you a picture if you're a couple and give you a trophy if you're that good."
"What is it, American Idol?" I asked. "Nope, nope, I can't sing, not doing it."
"They give you a fifty percent discount off the food if you capture the attention of the customers and they cheer for you."
"What?" I grinned.
There was two in one million chances that guaranteed us that discount, and without hesitation, I was going to take it. This was free food we were talking about…well, almost free food.
"Let's do it," I replied, standing up. Determination written all over my face.
"Yay!" She grinned, clapping her hands.
We were led to the karaoke platform, an elevated section in the middle of the restaurant, with two microphones and a pair of hover stools. There was a list of songs to choose from, most of them modern like Zuca's 'Shalmaine' or Halo Garnite's 'Falling for you' classic hit that stayed at the top of the billboard for three weeks. But none of these were on my radar, I was more of an oldies man myself and apparently so was Lemon. Being the gentleman that I was, I gave her the chance to choose our song…she chose 'The Night We Met,' by Lord Huron.
Of all the songs on that list to sing, she had to pick that song, I mean there were like five Ed Sheeran songs on that list. Plus, why would the restaurant even put that song there? Lemon smiled when she picked it, she knew exactly what the song was about.
"There's something romantic about this song," she whispered to me, but loud enough for the microphone to pick it up and send it to the audience.
So we did a duet of 'The Night We Met.' She was right. There was something magical about that song, and the way we sang it, you better believe the audience was moved to tears. They even gave us a standing ovation, Lemon's voice was that of an angel. Our eyes met as we approached the end of the song, it was as though the whole world had been blurred and she was the only one I could see clearly. The eyes, they never lie. I fell in love with her right on that spot.
We had won the discount, and the trophy. But there was one more reward the restaurant gave Lemon and I, one that she didn't know about. They crowned us King and Queen of Yolo-Star for the night, placing on our heads beautiful crowns made of bronze and aluminium foil. I stepped back while they crowned Lemon, then I announced on the microphone;
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Queen of Yolo-Star."
We had a good time in that restaurant, then we went to the Eiffel tower, where we took pictures together and of the scenery. Soon, the time came for us to call it a night. By this time, we were holding hands and creating inside jokes. We made our way to the twin hotel, into the elevator and towards our specific suites. I stopped her at her room and watched as she pulled out the key card from her purse.
"Tonight was fun," she turned before entering her room.
"You were amazing," I replied, lost in her eyes.
"Let's…do it again sometime?"
I nodded. "Yeah, definitely."
"Um…" she reached out to hug me, but I had simultaneously stretched out my hand for a shake. Then she switched, stretching out her hand for a shake, but I had changed to a position for a hug. It was awkward to say the least. We chuckled.
"Goodnight Ezra," she smiled coyishly, closing the door behind her.
"Good…night Lemon," I replied as I watched the door close.
I exhaled, walking away to the next door, which was mine. Before I could pull out my card and open my door, I heard her door click open. She swiftly came out of the room, straight to me and stole a kiss, a wet passionate kiss. Then she stopped, pulling back. I looked at her, she looked at me. Immediately, I returned the kiss…and so we began another type of dance that night as she jumped on me while we kissed and tied her hips around my waist while I walked into her room and closed the door.
A spectacular night, if you know what I mean.