{M-H Mission} Dear Leader [Dana and Esteban]

Dana picked at her food quietly, wishing that she was allowed to put her hood up in school. This was the first time since she moved to Norwood that she had sat alone at a lunch table. At least, without knowing beforehand.

She tried to sneak a peek at her hand-me-down cell phone. It was given to her when her father got a new one, and was a bit brickish, but still could receive texts. Sadly, there was still not a new message on her phone telling her that Joey was just sick and Dana was just dreaming.

She shoved the phone back into the pouch of her hoodie and went back to picking at what the cafeteria called macaroni and cheese. Sigh.

Esteban was grateful to actually manage to catch someone during lunch for a change. Often, he would end up having to sit through the entire school day counting the hours until he could sneak up on a new team member heading home, but Dana was different. He was looking for his usual gang in the cafeteria when he noticed the girl sitting all by her lonesome, and it didn’t take long for him to realize who it was and that it was someone he should be talking to. The sweater had almost tricked him, but not quite, which could be seen as lucky or unlucky for Dana.

Sliding over to sit across from her, he put on his usual smooth-talking voice and held out a cup of fries from the fast food place not too far away (as he always ditched campus during lunch to go get food elsewhere). “Hey there gorgeous,” he started, leaning his head down a little to try and see her better as her head was hanging low, “Why the long face?” He figured he could try and get them to talk a little, to see if she recognized him or if she could put two and two together on her own, before he would go into the finer details of why he was bothering her on this freezing but lovely day.

Dana looked up from her food and blinked blankly at him, more out of the fact that someone was talking to her than anything else.

It took her a minute to place him, but her eyes lit up when she realized where she'd seen him before. "You're one of- ...were. You were one of Joey's new friends. From the Hunters." Dana caught her grammar and her excitement dropped a bit as she felt the stone in her stomach again. But she looked somewhat hopeful, remembering this.

To say that Esteban was surprised would be an understatement. As Dana looked up to him, he looked her over, and HOLY SHIT SHE WAS A HOT TAMALE! His eyes had widened slightly, taken aback by such a beautiful babe hiding in such a dinky sweater and hunched over so much, and he attributed it to a diamond-in-the-rough situation. Maybe she had just wished for beauty and was still trying to gain confidence from it? The idea soured the moment a little, as that would be the stupidest wish she could’ve made, but instead of dwelling too long on that, he instead focused on what she said.

“I see Inky explained a bit already. Or, did Joey tell you about the team?” He reached out to take one of her hands and clasped it between his, giving the top of her hand a gentle pat. “I’m sorry, it sounds like you were pretty close to Joey. You wouldn’t have been this excited to see me otherwise.” It must’ve been a hard thing to hear that her friend had gone missing… let alone if she knew what had actually happened.

“How are you doing, lovely? I’m Esteban, but most people around here call me Brahms. I’m the leader of the Hunters, and was hoping to talk to you about… well. Do you mind if we talk now?” He was trying to be as delicate as he could about this, both because he imagined her to be in a sensitive state of mind right now and didn’t want to already lose this member to despair, and because she was fucking gorgeous, and he wanted to make a good first impression on her.

Dana scratched the back of her neck, thinking about his questions before shoving her lunch tray away. “I’m doing alright, I guess. Joey being gone gives me a lot of time to think.” She shrugged, attempting to shake off the bad feelings that came from it.

“But I also have time to talk, yeah. I know a little bit about the team thing. It was good conversation when Joey and I were running.” She looked up at Esteban and tried to smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Brahms. I’m Dana.” She realized that he might know that already, but it was polite to introduce herself, since he did. She at least had to try to be not gloomy, right?

“Joey told me enough that I had intended to help when she started getting really tired, but...I guess the timing was bad.”

“It’s my pleasure,” he said to her pleasant introduction, but went silent for a moment. Esteban was very conflicted here, very conflicted indeed. “Dana, I’m going to be really honest with you here.” He pulled out the pair of shoelaces for her and put them on the table between them as he talked. “As a magi, you don’t really get a lot of time to grieve over anyone you lose. Being sad for too long will make you turn into a witch, as I’m sure Inky explained. Truthfully, there were a lot of people that died that day, and I’ve already moved past them all. If you can, I would suggest you do the same for Joey. Try to think of the good times, and decide that you’re going to pick up where Joey left off, yeah? This is all about you now.” In other words, he didn’t want her to be doing anything just for her lost friend. It worried him to think that she was a very sweet girl that might’ve only been sent to him because of her ideology caused by someone who isn’t even around anymore, and that her opinions may sway and change as time goes on.

“Do you mind if we exchange phone numbers? I can text or call and let you know whenever we might have team interactions.” It was strange trying to be so calm and polite, when he was normally so… abrasive and charismatic, but he felt like this was a very gentle situation and he knew Dana would see that side of him eventually. “You can always call if you need to talk, too. I’m a pretty good listener.” Not the best, mind you, and certainly not someone to go to for advice, but he could at least try and calm her down if she ever needed it or something. It was always tricky getting a starting magi who was already depressed and lost someone close to them… but the asshole leader side of him hoped that this meant she would be tougher than the rest of the team in regard to future deaths and he wouldn’t have to worry about her as much later.

"Yeah..." Dana sighed. "I can try at least... I mean... I wanted to help in the first place, and I won't be a help if I end up a witch myself, will I..." Dana chewed on her lip a bit before pulling out her phone. "I'll work on moving forward. If you want to put your number in, feel free. It's a bit old, though- it can't do group chats. But it works."

 Esteban paused at her words, because DAMN, this girl was miserable wasn’t she? There was only one way he could think of to fix that… hehehe. He pulled out his phone and said his number so she could put it into her phone, and waited for either a text from her, a call, or for her to just say her number before he put his phone away.

“I’m thinking you need a bit of a pick-me-up,” he said casually, running a hand through his hair as he thought (and to try and get that sexy disheveled look), “and nothing warms the heart like a great meal. That’s why comfort food is a thing, right? Maybe I can take you out to dinner sometime? Anywhere you want. We can get some food, talk about things, maybe see a movie? Of course, if you don’t want to that’s fine, but I’d be an awful leader if I left one of my team members so down in the dumps.” His tone went somewhat teasing at the end, but it was meant to be taken as a joke and not insulting.

Of course, he wondered if she would catch on that this was sounding eerily like a date, or if she would be innocently oblivious to the idea. He wouldn’t push it or would say that they could go as just friends if she shot him down, but if she didn’t, then hey! Nothing wrong with going on a couple dates with your team to see if there’s any sort of chemistry. After all, normal girls and boys are just so… boring. It’s exciting to date other magi, at least to him.

Dana was going to send a text to Esteban before she realized she had no idea what to say in it. It sort of seemed lame just to say “This is Dana“ and send the text, so she instead looked from his phone to him and recited her phone number.

When he mentioned a pick-me-up and food, Dana glanced back at her lunch tray. Obviously he didn’t mean now, but the offer of going out to dinner was nice. She didn’t really do that often, except with her family, and the food she normally ate was pretty plain. She was already going to be changing around her schedule for this magical girl thing, maybe she should start with going out to dinner and wipe the slate clean.

“That would be really nice, actually,” She smiled in thanks at Esteban. “Dinner and a movie, I mean. I live close to the theater, so that’s not too far for me to go.” And she could stay out later, if that needed to be the case, too. Running home from the theater wasn’t a bad situation- it was closer than school.

Dana curled a finger in her hair, thinking about what sort of food she might like. She was hesitant in asking for anything particularly expensive, mostly because she wasn’t sure who was going to be paying. If they went dutch, she wanted to be sure she had the money for it, so anything super fancy was out of the question. And messy would probably be a bad idea around someone she was still getting to know. He could very well judge her on that. “I would be up for some Italian, maybe?” Italian was a safe bet, right?

Esteban nonchalantly punched her number into his cell and added her as “hawt mama” in his contacts before putting his phone in his back pocket. Not like she would ever know, and who knows, maybe she would think of it as a compliment! He certainly would if he found out his contact name was “stud muffin” or “hunk” or anything like that.

Esteban’s smile grew, and he did what he could to keep the coy smirk at bay. “Excellent! And don’t worry, I could pick you up. I’d be an awful date if I made you walk everywhere.” He chuckled to keep things light, but did drop the less than subtle hint of whether it was a date or not so she could make her feelings on the matter clear. Not like he would be offended if she said it wasn’t a date, but the last thing he wanted was to scare her off by being a little too… upfront about things.

“Just give me a date and a time, and where to pick you up? Consider it all on me, too, unless you really feel like pitching in. Italian sounds great, I think I know of a really good spot not too far from the theater. You just busy yourself with figuring out what movie sounds good, yeah?” He seemed ready to say more, but heard the school bell ring indicating that lunch was over, and motioned to her food as though offering to throw it away for her if she wanted.

“Keep in touch though, okay? Any time you start feeling sad or just need someone to talk to, I’ll be there. I like to think I’m a pretty funny guy and can cheer you up.” It depended on her personality though, of course, as we all know his sense of humor is rather eccentric.
Overall though, Esteban was a little disappointed right now. Not because of Dana’s acceptance of the date or anything, but just that he felt he hardly knew her still. He knew what sad Dana was like, what the Dana who just lost a friend was like, but he didn’t know how she was normally yet. It made him excited for that date/outing they would have at some point, just to get to know his team mate a little more.

Dana smiled in return. She hadn’t put Esteban into her phone as anything besides “Brahm”, nor did it occur to her at the time to do so. But she was more focused on Esteban’s offer to pay for dinner. Somehow, she missed Esteban calling it a date, mostly because she was pulling out her admittedly sparsely-used planner to check dates. Mostly, it was filled with dates for Track and Cross Country meetings, as opposed to actual homework.

“Let’s see… Um… I’m free next week after 5,” Dana offered. “I’ve got running meets after school, but… Well, I’d have to get home, I guess, so at six or so.” She realized that she would need the time to shower and change into something nice if she were going to go out to dinner, she wouldn’t want to be gross, sweaty and smelly. At least not in front of her future team leader. She had to at least make a good impression so that he would think she was worth having on the team, right?

To be fair, he probably was going to see her like that anyway if they did training things, but dinner was different. She wanted to look sort of nice for dinner, at least. “Maybe Friday? Would that work for you? I’m not sure if or when we have team meetings, so…“ Dana shrugged. Really, she wasn’t super sure about his schedule, but he said pick a date. Hopefully it wouldn’t conflict with anything else that he had at that time?

Esteban’s final words stuck in Dana’s mind, though. For someone who was normally alone, just the offer of having someone to listen meant a lot. Someone who understood why Dana was upset and who Joey was and why she was so important. Someone who knew the gap that Joey’s absence caused. And Dana smiled. “Thank you, Brahm. I’ll text you tonight with the movie, I promise.”

Esteban was honestly a little shocked that she hadn’t corrected him on the date thing. So it was an actual date then? That just made things WAY more interesting! He was already getting carried away with his super mature thoughts about wondering if she was a secret freak, like those kinky librarians that look super sweet on the outside but are little minxes in bed. He wasn’t expecting anything THAT drastic to happen, but even just getting a solid make-out session would be fantastic.
He can dream, right?

“Next Friday works fine. The plan was to have the team meet up sometime this weekend if possible, so any time after that should be great. Next Friday at six.” He had to repeat it to himself so he wouldn’t forget. Six was a pretty sweet date time too, it meant they would probably be parting ways late… maybe that was her secret plan! Get them to eat dinner and watch a movie until her parents are asleep and then slip into the house…
Oh Dana, you seductress!

It seemed as though his offer to be an open ear was the right idea, because he could tell there was some genuine gratitude in that smile. “Of course,” he said to her thanks, and gave a proper little head bow. “I’m also available for lunches whenever you feel bored ‘round here. I know the cafeteria isn’t the most exciting place so I’d be happy to spice things up for you.” He gave a quick wink before starting to make his leave, and called over his shoulder to her as he headed off toward class.

“Pleasure to meet you, Dana!”

A pleasure indeed! This was one of the best, and briefest, interactions he felt he’d had in a long while, and he was actually kind of looking forward to this date, even if it somehow ended abysmally. Which he doubted, because he’s gorgeous and perfect and she’s beautiful and perfect, match made in heaven, what could go wrong?