“Okay.”

     Lenris took a deep breath as he studied himself in the silver mirror. The bowtie was obviously not fully aligned with the jacket, it was a few degrees off, but he feared if he touched it, it would look too obvious that everything was precisely the exact measurements they were supposed to be. He needed to look a little spontaneous, a splash of fun and reckless.

     “This’ll be easy. You got this. Just dinner tomorrow. That’s it, nothing big.” he tried to convince himself, but the words coming instead just felt like lies. This wasn’t right, he was sure he had written down somewhere what he needed to say.

     He walked over to his bench, flicking his hand to the right as a gust of wind cleared the workshop table of the various inkwells, scrolls, and powdered gemstones which all flew to their respective jars each labeled with faintly glowing text. Lenris took his spellbook and placed it upon the table, opening the near akashic tome to thumb through the decades of spellcraft and arcane formulas that took him years and years to master. 

     He passed by his formula for reducing instinct and drive into alchemical regents to further bolster a more realistic homunculus, the spell he crafted that decreased the ritual time by thirty-eight percent of any creation that used titan’s blood, and even past his formula that combined two different blueprints of spellcraft into one efficient casting that gave a subject a sense of deja vu and forgetfulness with no immediate side effects. And then he found it. On the corner of one of the pages, scrawled hastily, “How about lunch at Khielscal’s? I hear they use Enikeran spices in traditional Empire dishes.” Not perfect, but it was good, it showed sophistication that he knew the ins and outs of the city and it wasn’t too forward or suggestive.

     His thought process was interrupted by an ethereal ringing of a silver bell in the back of his mind. Go time. He closed his spellbook, repeated the line once more just in case, and he took one last deep breath and gave himself a half-hearted grin in the mirror. He then put his palms together, each of his fingers beginning to individually craft pieces to a larger arcane formula, as he twisted his hands counter-clockwise to finish his fibonacci-based mandala, dripping with arcane energy. And once it was completed, as the space around it began to distort, Lenris plunged his body forward, through the temporary tear in space-time.

     His shined leather shoes hit the cobblestones beneath him as he expected. Ahead was the main street, made of well-worn stone as hundreds of individuals from all walks of life used it every day. Behind him was the alchemist’s shop. Right, he had come from the alchemist shop. Lenris waved his hand, causing a small shower of spontaneous motes of iridescent energy to shower him in the scents of rosewood, steeped black tea, and fresh rainwater. She’ll be off work now, heading home and this was where they usually bumped into each other. He had this. He took a step forward, looked up, and saw her in the crowd of people. She didn’t see him, but boy did he see her. She was still in her leather armored uniform, with a steel pauldron on one shoulder, and a purple sash on the other. Her short cut auburn hair bouncing very faintly as she moved with purpose.

     He forgot everything.

     She stopped for a moment, her military instincts sensing that she was being watched, even for just a moment, and she turned to her right, where Lenris was just standing there, dumbstruck. As she turned his eyes widened. He would look like a creep, just waiting in the alleyway. He missed his chance here. There was another stop up ahead where they had met before. He had to do it there. In an instant, before her eyes could reach the alleyway, he took a deep breath and closed his own, focusing and intently believing in the idea that he was nothing, as his hands moved like clockwork to produce four interconnected sparking mandalas.

     And she saw nothing. Just an alleyway. It must’ve been her imagination, her trainees were getting better at unarmed combat, and she was still in that training mindset. She shrugged it off and kept walking, shaking her head as deep down she was hoping to at least have a conversation with Lenris like she usually did. It had become a kind of comfort that she looked forward to, a nice conversation after a day of barking orders and sparring. He always seemed to be buying something from the alchemist, hence their frequent conversations, but today she supposed he was just busy and she kept walking.

     Lenris sighed with relief as she walked out of sight, his form slowly fading back into existence. Then he remembered. The other stop that he would see her at was only when he was leaving the academy and the academy was closed. How could he forget? At that point it would be clear to her that he looked like he was stalking her and that would ruin everything. He sighed and slumped down on the cold cobblestone beneath him, looking up at the cloudless, blue sky.  Pursing his lips, he placed his palm on the stone beneath him, half-heartedly going through the motions of creating a powerful and intricate rune which caused the sky to suddenly fill with grey clouds. And with a final dash of arcane energy, little droplets of water began to fall from the sky, pattering lightly against the tiled roofs, cobbled grounds, and linen garb as people began to rush to their homes. At least she liked the rain.

     Why did this have to be so hard?