FAN FICTION
Spring Rendezvous
The restaurant Julius, Soma, and Mina were in was a pretty fancy one, the kind that a regular College Student would never have a chance to afford a dinner in one. Julius had called Soma nearly out of the blue, the young college student just coming out of one of his classes. Julius had invited both Soma and Mina to some lunch. The two college students had accepted the offer without a second’s thought, glad to have someone else paying for food.
It was shortly after noon, the lunch crowd starting to hit the restaurant in force. Julius had the same serious face that he always wore on, seemingly like he never found anything amusing. Mina looked kind-of tired, probably stressed from the work that she had to do at the University. Soma looked the same, although he was a bit more energetic and had a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes. They all nodded at each other as they sat down with Julius, Mina with a friendly smile and Soma with a boyish grin.
Julius had already ordered some coffee for himself and had taken the liberty of ordering some tea for his two guests. The drinks arrived at nearly the same time as the college students. Julius took a sip of his coffee, untainted by sugar or cream.
"Nice to see you two again. It’s been a few months, hasn’t it? How’s school been going?" Julius asked, looking calmly at his two young friends. Both Soma and Mina took sips from their tea, both liking the quality of the restaurant.
"Yeah, it has been. Classes have been going okay with both of us, although Soma is still having the same problems with notes. How has your work been going?" Mina smiled at Julius, interested in the kind of work that Julius did for the church. Ever since the two incidents involving Soma, Mina, Julius, and others, she had started becoming more and more interested in the kind of things that Julius did. Soma also nodded his interest.
"Yeah, Julius. How has work been going? Your friend’s been around to watch your back?" With that comment, however, Soma started chuckling lightly. Both Mina and Julius looked at him with raised eyebrows. Julius just ignored it, however, thinking that the young man had an odd sense of humor. He cleared his throat slightly.
"Work has been going fairly well. Ever since that cult was destroyed, the only real threats out there are just a few monsters that pop up every now and then." Julius took another sip of his coffee. Actually, he had also come today on church business. He wanted to check up on Soma, to see how Dracula’s soul was doing. The worst threats to the soul being reawakened had been destroyed along with the cult that had been bent on resurrecting Dracula. However, that didn’t mean that they should get careless.
"Ah, that’s good. That must mean that things had been getting pretty boring, huh?" Mina asked, intently listening to what Julius would say. Before he could say anything however, a waiter finally appeared to take their order. Soma managed to order the most expensive thing on the menu, a porterhouse steak. Mina ordered a simple chicken meal, while Julius just had a Caesar salad. Soma started laughing again when Julius ordered, awarding him some hard looks from his two friends. The waiter left with the order, also going to bring some new drinks for them. Julius looked at Soma.
"What was so amusing about what I ordered?" He asked the young man sitting across from him. Soma just shook his head, still chuckling slightly.
"Oh, nothing, just something random I found amusing." Soma replied, the boyish grin still on his face. Julius just raised an eyebrow, letting it drop. In all honesty, he wasn’t acting any different than nearly any other time Julius had seen him. The food arrived shortly, as did the drinks. Julius returned to the previous conversation over the main course.
"Well, I try not to think of my job as boring. You start getting careless when you start worrying about how fun your job will be. However, since I seemed to have some free time, I decided to come up and check on you two. Anything odd been happening lately?" Julius answered and asked, waiting until he was done talking to take another bite. Mina shook her head, as did Soma.
"Well, besides for our courses being unusually difficult, nothing’s been going on." Mina said, nearly finishing her chicken. Both Soma and Mina were eating kind-of fast, apparently very hungry. Julius knew that the usual budget of a college student was fairly low, which meant that they had to live on cheap ramen for most of their meals. This was probably a feast from god to the two college students.
"Ah, that’s good then. Just be sure to take care of yourselves." Julius finished his salad shortly after Soma and Mina finished their meals. They didn’t order anything for dessert, mainly because both of the college students were full and Julius rarely ever ordered dessert in the first place. The bill came and Julius paid for everything, as was expected. Soma had an oddly neutral look on his face as they stood up to leave. Julius faced Mina while Soma went to grab something from the table, probably some scrap of food that they had left.
"Well then, thank you for coming to lunch. I’ll be in Japan for a couple of weeks, so I’ll probably be in touch if you two need anything." Mina was about to say something when she stopped, looking behind Julius. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a hand with a knife in it coming towards his back. His reflexes acting, he spun around quickly, using one arm to knock the hand with the knife away while his other came in for a punch on his assailant. He stopped short when he saw Soma’s frightened face looking at him at the end of Julius’ fist. Soma dropped the knife on the table and put his hands up.
"Sorry, sorry, it was a joke!" Soma started to say quickly, taking a couple of steps back. He continued before Julius could say anything.
"It’s the Ides of March today, that’s why I’ve been laughing at all the Julius Caesar jokes. I agree though that I might have taken this last one a bit too far." Julius’ fist was shaking, angry that he had almost hurt his friend. He walked up to Soma and poked him in the chest with his finger.
"Don’t do anything like that again. I’ve got enough problems without having friends try to stab me in the back." Julius dropped his hand, his anger vanishing. He did chuckle slightly though, noting how Soma had actually applied some of his learning, even if it was for a series of poor jokes.
"As I was saying, I’ll be in Japan for a couple of weeks. Let’s have lunch again sometime." With that, the three left the restaurant and split ways. As Julius walked down the crowded street, he thought about everything that had happened. The soul was safe and intact, as were Soma and Mina, and what Julius had thought would turn out to be a giant headache had actually been an enjoyable meal. Perhaps he would try to have lunch with them again. Only this time, not on a holiday where Soma would try to stab him.
END.