D-Date? [Dakota]

[Deleted]

Dunstan stood in front of a mirror in the Athena cabin, his hands shaking. He wore jeans and a blue button up shirt. He had a white t-shirt underneath, and was working on trying to decide how many buttons to do. His fingers fumbled over the buttons as he unbuttoned and buttoned them over and over again. One of his sisters, a younger one, approached him with a sympathetic smile. She stood between him and the mirror, reaching up do undo the top few buttons, "It looks good this way Dunstan, stop worrying so much," she told him with a kind voice. All Dunstan could do was nod, words were hard.

Soon he was out the door, and making his way to the Aphrodite cabin. The Aphrodite Cabin. He couldn't believe that he had actually managed to somehow, accidentally, get a date with someone from that cabin. He usually looked at them with judgmental eyes and unkind thoughts. Now he was starting to realize that he really couldn't judge any cabin off of what they were known for. He really couldn't judge anyone by there parent. Dakota was proof of that.

He approached the door and guess it was somewhere around 6:57 and 23 seconds. But that was just a rough guess. He reached his hand up, hesitating for a moment, before rapping on the door lightly. He rocked back and forth on his heels. His heart started to pump a little and he started playing with the buttons of his shirt.

Dakota King

[Dakota King]

As soon as Dakota returned to her cabin from the beach, she hopped into the shower and made sure to do her entire cleansing routine with shaving and exfoliating. She had a date after all and wanted to make sure she was looking presentable for it, even if they were climbing trees. It was only a couple of hours into the afternoon when she hopped out of the shower, but there was a long beauty routine ahead of her, especially if her siblings got wind of the date. She barely made it through moisturizing when her siblings started snooping. One thing lead to another and they were suddenly in charge of Dakota's hair and makeup. Dakota fought for minimal makeup and hair in a ponytail, which her siblings disagreed. It was obvious that Dakota needed red lipstick and curly hair while in a tree according to them.

At the end of the entire situation, Dakota finally had her hair up in a sleek ponytail with only minimal makeup on. By that point, her siblings were done helping her, so they left her getting dressed by herself, which was completely okay by her.

It was almost seven when Dakota was standing in front of the mirror doing one last check on her outfit. She decided to go with a pink plaid shirt, some shorts with lace details and her short cowboy boots she wore when she did horse shows. She heard a knock on the door and her heart fluttered a bit. She looked back into the mirror and took a deep breath as she smoothed out her shirt one more time. She nodded to herself in the mirror before going to answer the door, thankful her siblings weren't in the cabin at that moment.

"Hey," she said as she opened the door and smiled when she saw Dunstan standing right there. She took a step out the cabin and closed the door before she said, "You ready to go climb trees?"

(Dakota's Outfit)

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"Hey," Dunstan took her in as she opened the door, not noticing that he had stopped breathing. Her shirt was form fitting yet loose at the same time, the lace shorts were classy but looked easy to move in and the boots looked firm enough for tree climbing. He didn't know what he had expected her to wear, but the outfit looked like it woulds serve their function well. He tried to shake the thought off, typical Athena kid. Analyzing her outfits usefulness rather than the way it made her look. He started to focus on that next, but that's when he started getting dizzy.

"Yup. Let's get out of here," he gestured for her to head past him in order to be gentlemanly, letting her go first, then turning to walk beside her. He absentmindedly placed his hands in his pockets as they began to walk, not sure what to say at first. "So," he started, searching his mind quickly for a topic that would be appropriate. He turned toward her and made a face pursing his lips to one side, wide eyed. It was a face of innocence and uncertainty, "how was a... the few hours we didn't see each other? Did you have a nice shower?" He growled at himself mentally and turned away. What a stupid thing to ask!

[Dakota King]

Dakota didn't notice anything wrong with Dunstan as she stepped out the door. She looked at him and smiled slightly as she took a step towards him. She noted that he looked very nice at that moment and it took all of her will power not to glance at his lips. She breathed a sigh of relief when he let's go. She walked towards the direction of the forest as she lightly kept her thumbs hooked on her belt loops.

She glanced over at Dunstan and smiled as he finally walked right beside her after a couple of moments. She raised an eyebrow at him as he pulled that face at her wondering what was going through his head. She laughed softly as she shook her head. "My shower was nice. It's nice to get that salt water off, you know? I just feel gritty after going into the ocean." She looked over and smiled at him. "What about you? Had a good last few hours?"

[Deleted]

"That's good. Showers good," he turned to face her after shaking his head and fluttering his eyes for a moment in fury. He really needed to get his act together if this date was going to be successful. He didn't even know what made a date successful, though. He smiled and nodded as she asked her next question, relieved for a new topic, "It was great. Just you know... gathered some data and whatnot."

Truthfully he spent most of the date asking his sisters about dates and how to treat girls. Technically he was still gathering data, just not for anything scientific. Mags told him that he just needed to be himself, Jordan went on about how he needed to make sure the date was planned out and very organized, but still to leave room for a little spontaneity? Whatever that meant.

[Dakota King]

Dakota forced herself to look straight ahead, but she couldn't fight those urges to glance over at Dunstan, especially his lips. She mentally smacked herself each time she did so. She didn't want to throw herself onto the poor boy. She didn't even know if even remotely returned any feelings for her.

"Gathering data?" Dakota teased as she raised an eyebrow at Dunstan. "Are you telling me there's a scientific way to climb trees besides grabbing a branch and pulling yourself up?" She smirked at him as she continued walking to the forest. As they got closer to their destination, she spoke up again. "So how far into the forest do we have to go to find the best climb-worthy trees? I'm going to assume it's pretty far."

[Deleted]

He found himself glancing at her a lot as they made their way towards the forest. He didn't mean to, and most of the times he didn't even notice, but she probably did. He felt very embarrassed about that. His cheeks turned red as she made the comment about scientific tree climbing methods, "No, I just meant..." he turned and caught the smirk on her lips. She was joking. He turned even more red because he couldn't tell that it was a joke at first. "Ha, yeah. I mean there are all kinds of ways to climb trees. Kinda like there are all kinds of fighting techniques. Really similar, but with some difference," he tried to joke back. But he probably just sounded really stupid.

He looked away from her, in order to cool his face down, and nodded at her next question, "Yeah, it's pretty deep in there. But don't worry, I brought my bow!" he gestured to his back where a bow and quiver were slung over his shoulders. His physical strength wasn't really his strong point, so he preferred battles from a distance. He could do some hand to hand combat if needed, however. "I haven't really seen that many monsters in my usual spot, so we should be safe."

[Dakota King]

Dakota readjusted her grip on her belt loops as she looked over at Dunstan with a bit of a smirk on her face. She forced her eyes to stay up where his were. His lips were just far too tempting at the moment. She already got in trouble once with kissing a boy recently. She didn't need any more trouble. "Ah," she said as she nodded her head and looked forward again. "It's kind of like healing practices too. The Apollo kids like their ambrosia and chants, while I like the good ole elbow grease, ya know?"

Once they were at the edge of the forest, she unhooked her thumbs from her belt loops and crossed her arms across her chest as she looked at Dunstan again. "Well... I forgot my dagger, so you have to protect the both of us." She gave him a little bit of an uneasy smile. She didn't like using her dagger, since she felt like she was supposed to be healing more than harming. But the fact that she was going into the forest with no protection bothered her. She visibly relaxed when Dunstan mentioned his spot had no monsters.

"Well, that's really good," she said as she gave him a bit of a smile. She uncrossed her arms and started walking into the forest. "Is there a certain direction you go or do you just keep going straight to find this tree of yours?"

[Deleted]

"Yeah, yeah! It's exactly like that," he said enthusiastically. He was glad that she understood what he was trying to say. "There is never one way to do anything. Well, most of the time. You can always find ways that work better for you as an individual, you know?" it wasn't really a question, it was more of an agreeing statement between what she had said and what he had said.

He nodded,"I've got this. I don't like to brag but..." he gestured to the bow again with a slight chuckle, "I really know how to use this thing. Okay, come on," he reached over as if he was going to take her hand then froze. He looked down at his hand, then at her face. "I." He didn't really manage to get much wordage out. He held his hand back and relaxed it at his side. Stepping first into the trees.

"Just stay close to me and I'll lead the way," He didn't bother to pull his bow off his back, he was really quick to draw when the time came. IF the time came. "I know this forest like the back of my hand, especially since there is so much geology and geography to study, I can recognize where I am by the terrain mostly."

[Dakota King]

Dakota smiled slightly as Dunstan showed off his bow and arrow set. It made her a little bit better, but she was still cursing herself in her head for not carrying around her dagger. If something were to happen to them... She shook the thought out of her head as she smiled more as she followed Dunstan into the forest.

"I can see that," she replied as she looked around as they entered the forest. She started to notice the rocks and the layout of the different paths. She could see how Dunstan could get so fascinated with something like it. She was completely in her mind and not really paying attention as she heard a rustling sound just off to the side.

She jumped a bit as she reached out to grab Dunstan's arm as she tried to reassure herself he was still there as she looked into the woods. A harmless bunny hopping into view. Dakota relaxed a bit and chuckled at the little fuzzy thing before she realized she was still holding Dunstan's arm. "Umm..." she said as she let go and reached out to rub her arm. "I don't venture much into the forest, if you can't tell."

[Deleted]

Dunstan nodded happily as she commented that she could see the variety of geological things around the forest, "Right!? It's magnificent. See that?" he pointed at a big rock a few feet away from them. "That's Basanite. Which is actually really interesting because this is partly made from volcanic rock, which makes me question how it got here in the first place, you know?" he blushed a little, but he didn't apologize for going off about these things. She seemed fairly interested in this actually, which kind of made him... happy? Plus, his accent started to get overpowering when he was excited, but she could understand that, hopefully!

Dunstan stopped as she jumped and grabbed his arm. He felt his arm start to heat up where she touched him, hypothetically of course. When a simple bunny jumped out Dunstan smiled, feeling a little empty when she pulled her arm away. "Hey, hey. That's no big. I know this place like the back of my hand and," he bit his lip and turned back to face her, "if you'd feel better holding on to me, you can." He said quickly and firmly.

[Dakota King]

Dakota couldn't help but smile a bit as Dunstan talked about his rocks. She thought it was cute that he could get so excited about something like that and she even noticed that his accent broke out a bit. That made her smile even more. She kept glancing at him, trying to avoid his lips, as he talked. Too bad it was ruined by a rogue bunny.

Dakota blushed from embarrassment as she waited for Dunstan's reaction. "That would be nice," she finally breathed out as she gave him a sheepish smile. "I just... I hear about the monster attacks in the infirmary and they're... they're not pretty." She took a deep breath as she reached out to grab his arm again. She couldn't help but notice that he was biting his lip and she wondered how soft they were. She shook the thought out of her head as she smiled at him. "Should we continue before another bunny attacks?"

[Deleted]

It would be a lie if Dunstan said that he didn't notice the way her eyes kept dropping from his and down to his lips. At first he thought that there was perhaps something in his teeth? But then he realized that his teeth weren't even showing. Except for the fact that he was biting his lip... but surely he would notice something in his teeth? He shifted his teeth around on his lips a little more before she grabbed onto his arm again. "My pleasure," he said breathlessly, "I am sure you've seen some pretty intense stuff," he shuddered.

He nodded at her next question, "Onward, we go!" he led them deeper into the trees, occasionally warning her to watch her step or dodge a branch. As they neared the area that he was leading her to, he started to slow his walk. "Okay, Dakota. The first thing you need to know about climbing trees is that it's much easier if you pretend like you are some kind of animal. Usually a squirrel."

[Dakota King]

Dakota couldn't lie, but she felt a little embarrassed from the fact that she felt loads better after she had a hold of Dunstan's arm. She kept glancing over at his face and couldn't help but notice he was playing with his lip a bit. That made Dakota blush harder as she quickly turned away from his face. She focused on walking through the woods with him as she tried to watch her step and watch branches that wanted to snag her clothing.

"Pretend that I'm some sort of animal?" Dakota asked as she scrunched her eyebrows together. "That's really a weird thought, but I guess squirrels would be the best, since they can climb face-first downwards. I could be a cat, but those get stuck in trees usually." She chuckled a bit as she glanced over at Dunstan for her next set of instructions.

[Deleted]

Dunstans eyes widened when she mentioned the 'cat' idea. "No, no. No cats! You are exactly right. You will get stuck," he took the initiative in this moment and pulled his arm from her grip, in order to drape it over her shoulders, "you are so lucky that you have me." Who was this suave, flirty guy coming out? Dunstan was starting to think to hard about where this could be going, and his hands started to get sweaty. He tried to ignore it. He was French, wasn't he? He knew all about this romantic stuff. He could do this. He could.

Finally, they reach a clump of trees with fairly low branches, easy to get a foothold. He slowed to a stop, "Here we are! Now, the next thing you need to know is that you can't think about the ground. It is not important. You want to..." he slipped his arm off of her shoulders but kept close as he gestured to the treetop, "Atteindre les cieux."