Exit: (Bashful Jungle Princess) - A Wholesome Date by the River

James' Perspective

Honestly, I'm pretty happy with things already, as well as a little curious to see what happens, so... Let's go ahead and Exit.

Immediately, Arma starts moving. She tries to maintain her smile, but it's growing a little wobbly as her blush intensifies and she starts not-quite fidgeting in place. I'm tempted to just keep staring just to tease her and see how long she can keep it up, but Arma breaks the silence first. "So, haha... I told you: I'm the strongest princess you'll ever meet!" She boasts, although awkward nerves leaking into her voice work to counter her words quite well, "Don't worry so much about my dad, alright?"

Her extra ears are twitching. Do cats normally do that when they're nervous?

"Well, I," have no idea what she's on about, but I can guess at least, "can't say you're wrong. You're absolutely the strongest looking woman I've ever seen." Her blush intensifies a bit, and her eyes drift away from me as I speak. Geeze, is she that weak to compliments? Cute.

Now... how the hell do I get her talk about what she thinks I should be worried about without giving away I have no idea how we got to this point...

"Ahaha," She laughs nervously, "yes! I'm not very talented at magic, or househould affairs, or.... basically anything a Princess is supposed to be good at, so physical training is all I've got going for me. Which is why dad probably definitelywon'thaveyouexecuted--" Wait. What was that?! I'm pretty sure I just heard something I should absolutely be worrying about in the babble.

"--for going out with me. I'm just the disgraced spare at this point, after all: My younger sister's a much better bargaining chip for the other clans. So, uh, yeah: We're definitely fine to do things. Especially if we keep it nice and controlled and, uh, don't have any bastard children without dad's permission."

...What have I gotten myself into? Idly, I tap the app on my phone - which is still pointed her way - and it buzzes. Can't change someone twice, huh? So that's the catch. Well, alright. I just need to enjoy my date with the princess and keep my phone handy in case her dad decides to take exception. Even if she can physically manhandle anyone the man sends after us as she claims, I don't wanna be the guy getting Arma in trouble after all.

"So~!" Arma cuts in, drawing me from my thoughts, "I was thinking..." She half-turns to the absolutely gorgeous pool behind her, "y'know, maybe we could swim a little? Or just hang out by the water and talk, and stuff, and... yeah. Stuff."

She is an absolute mess of nerves. It's kind of comical how much of a blushing maiden she still is despite the, ah, imposing presence she presents at a glance.

"Sure," I agree candidly, "but I'd need to strip down a bit to swim, you know?" Heh. Her blush is finally defeating her tan: That woman is cherry-red. "So maybe we can start with just chatting for a bit, if that's what you want. I'm warning you though, I'm kind of a boring guy..."

And so, we end up talking by the river instead of swimming about a wide range of topics ranging from her family to her training to my family and, um, my schooling which... Ahahah, she changed the subject real quick on that one. As the sun starts to set and we eat a small lunch she'd brought and set aside...

We didn't do much more than hold hands and sit a little close to each other but I don't think I'm in as much of a rush to push things further as I thought I'd be? Just having a girl romantically interested in me, chatting, having a good time... S'more fun than I thought it'd be. Of course, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing how she reacts to us actually doing something lewd but...

This is nice.

[AN: Starting with an Exit from James' perspective for a change of pace. Also it's probably more interesting than Arma's constant internal fretting throughout this entire exchange. Topically, I agree with James for entirely different reasons: Being able to write something so vanilla is like a breath of fresh air lol.]

[I've created a poll to see what Exit you guys have the most interest in creating a new story-branch from, linked here (the preceding is a strawpoll link: remember to check the destination before clicking a hyperlink everyone.)]