A new start?

Romulus walked up to the building he had been walking towards for the past few months, but, despite only having heard of the guild a short time ago, he felt that he had actually been walking to this exact building his entire life. He looked the impressive building up and downWell, definitely not imposing at all. He started nervously brushing his hair back with his fingers and swiping the dust off of his coat, trying to look as clean and respectable as someone that spent 3 weeks in a desert can.

It was a nice sunny day, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining and Jin was walking towards the guild. He had woken up early, taken a shower, made his breakfast and eaten it. The more he cooked the more better he got at it, he really was glad that Kakuma gave him this job. Quite a few individuals had become acquainted with him in the neighborhood as he was Black Rose mage. Well the tattoo on the left side of his neck did make it pretty obvious. As he finally arrived at the guild’s main entrance he noticed a new face. The heat mage walked to this new person from the back, he appeared to be wiping dust off his clothes.

”Hey there” he said with a gentle smile. The wind was gently blowing and his long white hairs were moving along with it, his hazel eyes were curious as ever. He was wearing a gentle fit dress shirt, white in color with a pair of grey colored pants.

Romulus, caught up in pure nerves almost jumped when he heard a greating from behind him. The shock made him lose his grip on his magic for a second, causing his freshly primped white locks to go every which way. He sighed in exasperation, turned to face the new voice, and locked his steel blue eyes with this stranger's hazel ones. He faked a smile and said in reply, "Ummm, hi? Are you..." he paused as he saw the guild mark on the man's neck. "I'm sorry. I seemed to have found the answer to that question. I'm Romulus Lupin, I'm here to join Black Rose," he brushed his coat tails back once more, and held out his right hand to the man.

”Lupin.. Welcome to Black Rose then, I’m Jin Okura, just call me Jin” he replied as he shook the mage’s hand. ”Come along, I’ll show you around and get you inducted” said Jin as he opened the door to the guild and walked inside. The guild hall awaited the arrival of the new inductee. He recalled the time when he first entered the hall, it was overwhelming for a moment. He had wanted to become a member of this guild for seven years and that was the first time had he seen the guild itself. Well this was no time to be reminiscing about the past. He walked to the bar and asked for his usual and two orders of it too. The bar tender nodded and brought two pieces of red velvet cake. ”Come on, let’s eat first and then I’ll get you to meet Kakuma and Sophie” he said pointing to the chair next to him as he grabbed his plate.

Romulus hesitantly took the plate he assumed was his as he sat next to Jin. Something about this man felt familiar to Romulus, but he ignored the feeling. He chose instead to deal with what was on the plate in front of him. He looked hesitantly at Jin and said, "I am a bit embatresed to say this, but I've never eaten thing this.... This extravagant. " He nervously smoothed out his black pants, debated how good this food could be, and tried his hardest to ignore the feeling that was still boiling in the pit of his stomach.

Jin had always had a sweet tooth and he couldn’t imagine his life without cake. In fact, he couldn’t imagine anyone’s life without cake. He first stared at the plate, then the red velvet cake on it and looked at Romulus in the end. Meanwhile, he took a spoon and ate a piece of cake while thinking what to say. Finally, he decided to say something to ease his newly found friend’s confusion: ”Bwmust tfry bit”. Due to his mouth being occupied by the cake presently it came out to be decipherable as “Must fry it”. Realizing that he gulped the cake and then cleared his throat before replying, ”Just try it. I’m sure you’ll love it like I do”.

Not one to disappoint those around him, Romulus looked at the cake and decided he would treat this unknown treat like it was a fight, something he definitely knew. He breathed deep and cut a small bit of the moist, spongy triangle with his spoon. He scooped up and carried the small piece to his mouth. As soon as it hit his tongue his eyes flared open. It was so succulent and rich that he almost gagged. After he got over the initial shock, he adored the sweetness. "This is so amazing! How could I have not had this before," he almost screamed out as he started putting spoonful after spoonful into his mouth, his hair got more and more messy with every bite. Treating this as a fight was either a horrible failure, or a scathing enditement of just how little control of his emotion he had in combat. No matter though, as it was at this point that Romulus knew he had found his first friend in the guild.

Jin still couldn’t get over the fact that Romulus had never eaten cake before. He was happy though that he got to be the one to recommend cake to him; especially his personal favorite: red velvet cake. After he finished and Romulus devoured his share, Jin grabbed a handkerchief and passed it to him. They were going to meet the guild master; so one should look presentable at least. Not that Kakuma was one to cast great first impressions. He remembered the first time he met her and the mistakes he had made. ”I suppose I should tell him so he doesn’t make the same mistakes as I did. I still think I’m on her bad side just because of that first encounter”, he was a bit embarrassed now as he recalled it.

However, he didn’t let his embarrassment get the better of him, calmly he placed the empty plate on the table. ”Before we go and meet Kakuma, I think I should tell you a few things. I did make quite a little bad impression on her the first time I met her, better you avoid that. First, don’t call her guild master or guild leader or miss or ma’am, simply don’t be formal with her. Just call her Kakuma, that’s how she prefers it. Secondly, she looks small don’t overact to it, pretend you don’t notice that”. That should be enough information for Romulus to process. If he went according to what Jin had told him, he shouldn’t have any trouble casting a good first impression.

”Now then, if you’re ready, let’s go find Kakuma” he got up and smiled, ready to get this mage his guild tattoo.

Romulus took the handkerchief and suddenly became immediately aware of his apearence. He quickly wiped his face and hands clean, then brushed more sand dust off of his loose black shirt and pants. It was strange, he had never cared about his appearance before now. He lightly ran his hand through his disheveled white locks before he turned to Jin and said, "Well, there goes everything I already planned on saying. Thank you though, I'm really banking on this going well since," he he paused and took a long look around the guild hall, as cacaphanous as it was, he had to admit that he felt at home here already. He realized how long he had paused, then finished his statement, "Since I already don't want to leave this place." He stood up from the bar that he and Jin had been occupying and offered his guildmate back his handkerchief.

Jin smiled and accepted his handkerchief back, dirty but well that was the purpose of giving it anyways. This mage reminded him more of himself, he was nervous when he got here too once. Ever since Jin had met him he was too conscious about his clothes, this individual was probably too keen on hygiene. He realized that because of his revelations Romulus was out of things to say. Well, at least he won’t say what Jin did. He won’t call Kakuma the guild master or treat her like someone younger so that was good. ”Just talk to her like you would talk to someone of your stature”, that was indeed a difficult thing to do since the position was overwhelming. However, it was one helpful advice if Romulus could pull it off.

Jin looked around the hall when Romulus mentioned “this place”, it was a welcoming guild wasn’t it? The mages, the island, the people; everything and everyone was so heartwarming. ”This isn’t a place you leave Lupin, it’s a place you come back to” he said in a gentle tone. After that he began looking around, hoping to locate the whereabouts of the guild master. Soon, after asking a few roaming mages and searching they finally found her.

Romulus involuntarily smiled. "A place to come back to," he mused to himself, then he looked into Jin's eyes with a look of joy and said, "I've never had something like that before." Romulus was truly happy that this guild would accept him and take him in. Give him a place to come home to. Hell, give him a home in general. He wished with all of his heart that his brother was here now. To see this moment. Ever since he lost his parents in the fire... He wouldn't let himself think about that right now. He buried those emotions down deep again and walked with his new friend to where they found the guild master.

Jin turned to look at Romulus’s face but before he could reply, he heard the voice of foot steps echoing in the hall. The hall was full of a few people and shouldn’t have such an environment to produce an echo, but it suddenly did. This implied that everyone had suddenly gotten quiet and people who were already working, just started working even more. This only meant one thing: Sophie was here. He hadn’t had time to tell Romulus about her, he had only told him about Kakuma. The well dressed female with glasses walked towards the two individuals with a familiar cold expression on her face. There was only way to warn Romulus before he assumed that Sophie was the guild master and tried to act all informal with her.

He bowed formally to Sophie greeting her, ”Good morning, Miss Sophie” he said with a formal tone. She looked at him and nodded, accepting the greeting. ”Yes yes, good morning. Who is this fellow? What are you doing here?” she quickly got on to the matter at hand and looked at Romulus with an examining eye. Jin could only hope that Romulus would act in the appropriate way with her; he had already given him a hint.

Romulus noticed a dull thudding reverberating through the room, am suddenly the clamor of the guild stopped. Not being someone to miss signs, he assumed the new sound had caused the abrupt stop in noise. He turned to see a sharply dressed woman coming towards him and Jin. She looked extremely stern. This woman could not have been the Guild Master. Romulus had heard the leader of this guild was a wolf.... But, what if they meant the term in a business sense?
Romulus was about to speak when he saw Jin bow to the woman and address her formally. This went against everything his new friend had told him prior to this encounter. No matter, it was better to follow someone already in the guild and apologize, than to find a different guild because of his informalness. He bowed with Jin, but dropping to one as he did so. He heard the woman ask for the reason he was in the guild, as well as inquiring about his identity. He looked up, though still bowing, and said, "Madame, I am Romulus Lupine. I am a lost magic user that wishes to enter this outstanding guild. I would be honered to be a member and to count myself among the ranks of powerful mages in this guild. I seek to bring honor and fame not only to myself, but to my guild as well." He then bowed his head back down and prayed silently that this introduction was good enough, and even more importantly, not too much.

”I see, I see” she replied and looked at Jin. ”And where did you meet him?”, ”Outside the guild hall, I was just about to enter and he was standing outside”. Jin replied avoiding eye contact, she was like the alpha female of this guild; better to not make eye contact. She smiled gently and looked at Romulus, ”We are a bounty hunter guild of neutral nature. This means that the king of fiore or the rules of fiore, don’t apply to us. We are sovereign in our own right”, she said to him and then turned her gaze to Jin. ”Get him his guild tattoo and give him a tour of the guild. If you can, go on a few jobs with him to help him settle in”, she gave her instructions and went on her way; probably looking for the lazy guild master again.

”That makes it official then” he said turning to Romulus. ”Sorry for not telling you about her earlier, I did intend to but she arrived before that. It did turn out well though, you did pick up on the hint that I tried to give you. Nicely done” said Jin with a smile. After that, he headed to the location where Romulus would acquire his guild tattoo and then he would give him the tour of the guild. Black Rose had just acquired another mage, and a lost magic user at that.

Romulus breathed a heavy sigh of relief. This was a wonderful moment. Not only had he did the right thing and got praised for it, but he was officially in this guild. This guild that was perfect for him. He finally stood up and walked behind Jin. This was the first moment of something wonderful.