Tying a Bell on a Disturbed Cat [closed]

After Riding in the tranquil moonlit streets for some time, the two arrive at a restaurant called "Five Star". Cheshire told his name to the book keeper and he showed the two to a table with a window. The surrounding atmosphere is rather formal and fancy. Even the silverware sparkled. There is a candle in the center and menus have a wide assortment of good sounding items. As you two are seated Cheshire says to the waiter, "I'll have the mango fruit tea and the shrimp carbonara with a little extra parmesan. Make the soup the clam chowder." Cheshire looked up at Liseran. "They have very good carbonara here. I also recommend the Salisbury steak or the stuffed lobster."

The waiter looks at Liseran. "What would you like to order madam?"

"Order whatever you like," Cheshire said, "It's my treat."

Liseran was surprised by the fancy ambiance and was worried that Cheshire had gone through so much trouble. She sat down as gently as she could and sat with her back a straight metal pole. She listened to Cheshire's recommendations. Looking at the menu, she told the waiter:

"I'll have the carbonara and the calamari special of yours," she said. "Oh, and for desert, your best fruit sorbet."

She was really hoping she hadn't ordered to much and the waiter bade them a good evening as he left. Liseran sank in her seat a little.

"You really didn't have to go through so much trouble," she told Cheshire, and then, looking away, "But I really appreciate it."

"It's uh... It's my pleasure," Cheshire stated, his eyes darting to the side. "This is just an apology for everything that's happened after all... and for being an idiot. I just hope you don't mind sitting down with a guy like me... as much of a terrible misfortune it is to go out with a guy like me..." Cheshire mumbled that last bit with a bit of depression in his tone but quickly straightened up.

"So why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?" Cheshire asked. "I would like to get to know a little bit more about you."

Liseran had been twirling the ends of a stray purple lock and was surprised.

"Apology?" she said. She sighed. "I don't understand what you're apologizing for. And..."

She hesitated a bit as she clasped her shaking hands together. A light blush came over her face as she did.

"How in the world of remnant are you a misfortune?" she asked. "I...I feel really honored just to be here because you've been so kind..."

She stopped herself from saying more, realizing she was dangling on a thread that didn't really need to be toyed with. She cleared her throat and decided to go to his next question.

"About me?" she asked. "Well...I come from a large family. Mostly women who stay within a cloister-library thing. That must sound weird. We protect the...things there. But really, that's all there is to it."

Just recalling the Vale Archives stirred a little melancholy in her heart.

"I'm not really the most liked person there," she said. "See, I can't really perform my duties because of my semblance. Our family has this unique semblance I was born without, so..."

She decided to skip the part that she ran away from home to find a missing book. She didn't want to really stir trouble at the moment.

"I decided to attend Beacon," she said with more confidence. "I think I can be more helpful...that way. Oh, sorry...I think I've talked too much."

She pulled back the stray hair of hers and looked at Cheshire from behind her glasses.

"Um...how about you?" she asked.

It was then that Cheshire seemed to have changed to a completely different person. His face was devoid of emotion of expression and his eyes were blank. His ear which had been twitching nervously before had gone still as if they had turned to lifeless accessories. He stared out of the window as if he saw something outside with his empty eyes but nothing but the streets at night were there.

For a while the faunus didn't say a word, simply stared out into empty space. Cheshire looked as if his mind had escaped his body and wandered off somewhere they way his body become still and silent. After a while Cheshire shook his head and looked at Liseran.

"Nothing special," he murmured, "My grandfather was a faunus tactician during the war. My father was a hunter. I became a tactical hunter. I now attend Beacon and hope to further my skills. Usually I keep myself shut in my room to read books but sometimes I go out and draw whatever catches my attention on my sketch pad."

Seeing Cheshire seem so...absent was the closest word to it...made Liseran worry about, but she felt a bit relieved that he had answered her. Something's bothering him... was all she could think. For a while she strangely thought she had lost him to something else she couldn't put her finger on. She nodded.

"I see," she said. "Guess making vehicles is a separate hobby?"

She was about to say more but her Sight activated and she could see herself and Cheshire sitting down at the table as if she were a totally different person. There was a waiter carrying a tray of flambé when a guest in a navy blue suit would so carelessly drop a rolling grape. The next thing she saw was woman running around as her dress caught fire. They stopped there.

Just as that happened, the waiter came through the door with the ominous dish and Liseran, despite knowing how her semblance worked, stood up from the table.

"E-excuse me for a bit..." she said.

Reluctantly leaving Cheshire, she found herself wandering to the next quarters and following the waiter. Just ahead of her was the man in the impeccable suit...and the rolling grape. Getting near the table, she crouched down to pick it up, not realizing the waiter was already behind her. The waiter, his eyes looking straight towards the guests had not seen her and fell over surprise, the flaming dish catapulting towards the woman. It hit the skirt of her dress and she turned around, looking for the perpetrator.

"Who did that!?" the woman demanded. But before she could get an answer, the trail of her dress went ablaze. She screamed and so did the other customers. Liseran stood straight up only to push the waiter against two others and making them loose their dishes. She rushed towards the woman and took out Weeping Cerinthe.

"S-stay still, ma'am!" Liseran cried.

She swung her bells in the smallest diamond form to send a small blast of ice to the woman's dress. The fire extinguished, but the ice had the woman's leg stuck frozen.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" the woman shouted at Liseran.

The guests glared at her angrily and the waiters were coming right at her. Liseran bit her lower lip immediately regretting her actions.

As if out of nowhere, Cheshire was at Liseran's side, his face calm and composed in an emotionless poker face. Raising his hands up Cheshire tried to calm everybody and pacify the waiters.

"I'm terribly sorry, please don't blame this lady," Cheshire said bowing his head. "It was all a mistake. She was just picking up something that was dropped. I will pay for the damages." Turning towards the lady, Cheshire bowed apologetically. "Please do not hold a grudge madam. I will reimburse you for the dress and any medical bills."

Cheshire continued to bow and apologize to everyone to the point where it just looked pathetic. He went around paying the waiters and the lady for everything and personally chipped the ice off her leg with a spoon. At the end of it all Cheshire was looking down at his wallet which only had a few bills left.

Apologizing one last time to everybody, Cheshire took Liseran's hand into his own and escorted her out of the restaurant. As they stepped out of the door Cheshire sighed and made one more apology.

"I'm terribly sorry," Cheshire said to Liseran. "I don't have the money to pay for our meal now."

The entire time, Liseran wanted to cry. Here it was happening again. She saw something bad, she tried to stop it...and she turned out to be the cause. But now even more Cheshire was saving her from the fiasco, losing face and had spent all of his money because of her. When they made it out of the door, she couldn't even look at him. She clutched the paper bag she had been carrying and she looked away, tears falling in the process, hating herself as each one of them dropped.

"It wasn't your fault..." she said, her chest squeezing back a sob. "I ruined everything...again."

Her arms were trembling now and she could hardly hold it in, but she did, as painful as it was.

"I understand if you want to end this now..." she muttered. "I'm such a terrible person to be with. I...I really didn't want to mess this up, but I did."

She then took out from her bag her small money pouch and offered it without looking at Cheshire.

"I'm p-paying you back." she said.

"Forget it," Cheshire said bluntly as he pushed the pouch away. "It's not your fault. You were just trying to help right?" Cheshire paused for a second and clasped both of his hands over Liseran's. "Nothing that's happened was on purpose so blame yourself. In fact, I think it takes a special kind of person to go out of their way to help others the way you did."

Cheshire let go of her hands and looked up at the sky in thought for a while, his ears twitching here and there. Finally he looked down and nodded. "Right, so are you hungry? I know a good place we can stop by."

Liseran's heart melted as Cheshire spoke and her hands, for once, stopped trembling clasped in his. Why are you so kind to me? she wanted to ask him, but she didn't. Instead, she simply nodded, trying to smile.

"I'll go wherever you want to go," she said. And then, ever so softly, "You're a wonderful person, you know that? Absolutely wonderful..."

Cheshire raised his fist over his mouth and cleared his throat, a slight pinkish color coming to his cheeks. "Anyway let's find a nice place to grab a bite..."

Holding Liseran's hand, Cheshire escorts her down the streets of Vale at night leaving Bandersnatch parked. As they walked in the cool air, Cheshire looks around until he spots an open noodle stand. Lifting up the curtains he lead Liseran inside and sat down. There a boy that looks about 17 behind the counter who greets the two.

"Has the old man been doing well?" Cheshire asks, his fingers overlaying each other as he leaned on the counter.

"You know my pops?" the boys asks as he stirs the pot of broth. "You must be a regular customer. What can I get you?"

"Just some water," Cheshire said. "So, have you been treating your lady friend right?"

"That geezer really talks too much eh?" the boy remarked setting a glass of water in front of Cheshire and Liseran. "Carmen's real cute so this relationship will probably last a while."

"I was referring to the other girl," Cheshire said as he casually sipped his water.

The boy suddenly froze, his eyes widened in shock. He looked left and right to make sure nobody else was listening before leaning over the counter, his hands slamming against the surface and looked right at Cheshire.

"Who told you about Sarah," he asked through clenched teeth. "Who else knows about it??"

"Only me," Cheshire said setting the glass down. "And I will be more then willing to keep it secret. You know what, I'm suddenly feeling hungry."

"H-how's about some of our best seafood ramen?" the boy offered rubbing his hands together and forcing a bright nervous smile. "On the house."

"Make it two," Cheshire said. "Extra shrimp and crab. Put an egg on them too."

In an instant, two bowls of steaming hot ramen were set in front of Cheshire and Liseran. Then another person came in from the back, a middle aged man wearing an apron. He told the boy that he could leave now.

"These two bowls are on me," he said to the man, his eyes darting at Cheshire as sweat poured from his brow before he left from the back.

The old man looked at Cheshire with a quirked eyebrow. "You don't look like one of his friend," he remarked. "You come here often?"

"No," Cheshire deadpanned as he picked up the chopsticks and stirred his bowl. "This is the first time I've been here or met either of you."

If the Dormirse head could see Liseran now, she'd probably flip. Noodles in the street were as nutritious as raw flour. But she wasn't here to see her and Liseran, to be honest, never really cared about the head mistress' thoughts save for being spared from punishment. And the place smelled strangely appetizing. Just one of the many scents of rebellion and freedom.

Liseran listened as Cheshire spoke to the boy and wondered if he knew him or not and it led her to be even more intrigued when he denied it upon seeing the middle-aged man. Either way, she was just glad they were eating and the mishap at the restaurant temporarily forgotten. The ramen looked extra appetizing and as she picked up her chopstick she couldn't help but smile. She worried a bit for another vision to bother her, but it didn't. For now, all was fine.

The two ate the complimentary noodles in piece and exited the open air establishment with full stomachs. As you two walked out Cheshire offered his hand to Liseran and escorted her as they walked down the street.

"Sorry I couldn't get anything fancier," Cheshire murmured, "That sort of trick does not work easily on a real restaurant's professional waiter."

"They were delicious," Liseran reassured, unconscious of the fact that she was gripping his hand tighter than she usually would. "Thank you."

As they walked,the sky grew darker and the building lights went down one by one. They were walking by a small portion of the dock and shore now, stars and the moon making it the brightest place at the moment. Suddenly getting an idea, Liseran turned around to Cheshire excitedly.

"I just had an idea," she said, almost confident about something the entire evening. "But first a question: Do you skate?"

"I have learned when I was younger," Cheshire answered. "Why do you ask?"

Liseran smiled knowingly, a rare sight but happening all the same, and she took both of Cheshire's hands, leading him over the dock fence and to the shore.

"Wait here," she said.

She then took out Weeping Cerinthe, making herself hover over the water as she cast out the Sleeper motion. The motion of the two bells making a diamond together cast an emblem out onto the clashing waves and touched, turning a circled portion of the lake into smooth ice. She stomped on it twice to make sure it wouldn't break, nodding in approval as she did. She then pointed another bell at Cheshire, making an oh-so-tiny diamond, the bell ringing softly in the distance, and causing an emblem to appear under him and herself. Ice blades attached to their shoes and Liseran skated towards him, putting her bells away. She let out her hand.

"I should at least let you have a good time," she said smiling sheepishly.

Cheshire looked at the circle of ice then at Liseran. A smile appeared on his face, something even rarer to see then the sun in the sky at night. He nodded and took Liseran's hand into his own. "Just so you know," Cheshire said looking right into her eyes, "I was having a good time the moment you knocked on the door."

The smile on Cheshire's face was something that Liseran would always treasure because it was one step to a wish she so earnestly wanted granted. To make others around me happy for change, she thought as she took his hand.

The streets were empty and silent, but Liseran swore she could hear music in her head as she skated, pulling Cheshire along with her on the ice, changing her whole new perspective of the hobby.

"When I was little," Liseran told him as they skated in circles. "The lake in front of our home would always freeze up in the winter and I'd always want to skate. No one else liked skating because it was so cold and we had duties to accomplish. Well, they did. I'd go on the ice alone, having learned to make my own skates after one Dust magic class. As everyone stayed cooped inside, I'd be out there and skating. No rules, no one thinking bad of me to worry about, it was like another world for me. The only place I could be happy. I wondered what it might be like to share that kind of happiness with someone else, but I'd never thought that day would ever come..."

They were spinning around now in a smaller circle of their own, Liseran's eyes bright but not because of tears.

"So, Cheshire..." she said saying his name one rare time. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for...just being yourself."

Cheshire looked embarrass again as Liseran said that. His eyes stared at the ice below them as they skated. No one has ever said such things to him before. No one had ever thanked him just for being him. He had never felt such warmth in his chest as he did now with this person.

...No, he has felt this way before. He remembered this feeling and he remembers the very person that had caused it all those years ago.

"Alice..." Cheshire murmured under his breath. His eyes widened as he realized that came out loud rather then in his mind. He clasped his hand over his mouth and stopped skating. "I'm... I'm sorry. I was just remembering.... something from when I was a kid..."

A saddened look came over his face again, his eyes looking away.

They stopped spinning and the top layer of ice made tiny shreds under their skates. Liseran looked at him with concern.

"You okay?" she asked. "If you're tired, we can stop."

She lifted her face to the sky where the moon was still shining brightly, so bright she had to lift an arm in order to cover her eyes from it. She turned back to Cheshire.

"Well, I guess its getting late anyways," she said nervously. "Perhaps we should go."

"No, I'm not tired," Cheshire replied, "But it is getting late. Let's walk back to the Bandersnatch and I can take you back to your home."

As the two of you walk back, passing through the streets of Vale as you retrace your steps, Cheshire stops in front of a jewel trader running an open stand. Cheshire is staring at the assortment of jewelry and points at one asking, "May I see that?"

Cheshire is pointing at a gilded ring with winged bells engraved on the band. Though it was no diamond there was a well polished topaz stone on it. The stand owner nods and hands Cheshire the ring. The faunus inspects the ring then turns to Liseran.

"May I?" he asks before taking her hand. Cheshire starts slipping the band into her finger to see if it was a good fit. Cheshire tried to take a step back to put more room between them, but he stepped on a stray soda bottle causing him to slip. Luckily he did not drag Liseran down with him as Cheshire fell on his knee, his hand still holding Liseran's while the other held the ring. Cheshire looked up and tried to apologize when his faunus ears picked up the clapping and the awing people surrounding them. Cheshire's eyes darted around not realizing what their current position looked like to others as he slid the ring into Liseran's finger.

Liseran's face rushed with blood and she felt like she could no longer see. The ring Cheshire had put on her was beautiful and it made her a little breathless, seeing him on one knee like that though she knew it was an accident. The clapping made her feel more embarrassed and she just gave Cheshire a sheepish smile, too bashful to really be able to say anything.

"It's beautiful..." she said to herself, but stopped and said, "You really don't have to. You've already given me such a wonderful evening."

The jewel in the ring glittered in her hand and Liseran felt for once that she was really special and she couldn't hold it in anymore. She knelt down next to Cheshire and embraced him, not sure about saying anything. It felt nice, the smoothness of his coat and the warmth of his body. She could even smell faint cologne that was neither to stingy or musty, but sweet smelling without being feminine. She just wished her embrace would convey her gratefulness and happiness for her because speaking would be useless.

Liseran had hugged Cheshire so suddenly that he practically turned to stone in shock, his face turning red, his mind spinning as if trying register that this girl was embracing him. Even more suddenly the clapping around them got louder and some even cheered giving sharp whistles. This all fell on death ears to the faunus as he was still shocked at this sudden gesture from Liseran. Cheshire swallowed a mouth full of air and forced himself to focus. Cheshire wrapped his arms around Liseran slowly and tenderly embraced her in his arms, holding her firmly but gently. The girl he held in his arms felt so small and delicate. She smelled so sweet and lovely that Cheshire found himself lost in the scent. His heart was beating so rapidly it was as though it was about to burst out of his chest. He felt that if he died at that moment he wouldn't mind. He felt that if time could stop that he would want it to stop then.

Yet the clock still ticked and he knew that at some point they would let go of each other. For some reason this made him sad but he had to face reality. Cheshire just felt content with cherishing this moment in silence and yet his voice urged him to speak. He just had to say one last thing. As they were locked in their embrace, Cheshire whispered into Liseran's ear.

"I wish we had not met today," Cheshire whispered, "I wish that we had met years ago. I wish that I had known you my entire life."

Sweet and almost timeless, Liseran didn't know how long she was going to be there with him and she swore to herself it was the happiest day that had ever happened to her. Where everything had been so bleak: the empty family room where her aunts would call her to dinner, her tenth birthday when she realized the Dormirse's semblance would never bless her, the constant tragedies she saw before her eyes and then later happen as she tried to stop them...all of it just vanished away in this swift eternal moment. She heard Cheshire whisper in her ears and she felt herself nod, tears once again brimming in her eyes.

"How I wish that, too," she said. She gripped him tighter one last time, and finally let go, smiling like it was her first time ever.

As Cheshire felt Liseran let go he regrettably did the same with some slight hesitation. Staring into her smiling face, Cheshire's cheeks were reddening. Cheshire placed his fist over his mouth and cleared his throat nervously, his ears twitching anxiously. He looked up at the jewel trader who was staring at them the whole time.

"Uh... I- I'll take it," Cheshire stammered.

Cheshire slowly stood back up and dusted the dirt off his pants. He offered his hand to Liseran to help her up.