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Sylvite hadn't been on an actual picnic in a long time, probably since she was in elementary school and they had to bring bagged lunches to eat outside the museums on their field trips. She wasn't exactly sure how picnics worked, and she definitely didn't have a secret stash of cottagecore picnic blankets or sandwich recipes or anything. Gismodine had been really into the picnic idea, though, and so she was going to try her very best.

At least she ate snacks all the time, which meant she knew a thing or two about snacks. She even went out to buy some knew snacks Wednesday night instead of relying on breaking into her office stash and hoping she'd have enough. No. She brought a fresh pack of Oreos, and a thing of Skittles, and gummy worms, and a few different kinds of crackers in case he was more of the salty type.

For the main dish, she bought a pizza. It was cheese, in case he was a vegetarian. For some reason, Gismo gave off the vibe of the type of guy who could possibly be a vegetarian.

Hopefully he wasn't vegan, or lactose intolerant, because she had no idea what she'd do in that case.

In any case, she teleported over to the park once she was powered up and had her food all collected, only to peek over her cardboard box of pizza and to see Gismodine right there holding a perfect little basket.

Sylvite gasped. "Woah," she said. "You're prepared."

He was bringing her nice stuff just ‘cause she’d been having a bad day last time they’d talked? That was, like, the sweetest thing ever. She blinked twice, actually stunned to silence by how cute this was. Then the grin came back, even bigger, and she said, “If you’re trying to get brownie points, it’s totally working.”

Not that Sylvite was hard to impress or anything, but snacks, especially fancy picnic snacks, were probably one of the fastest ways to get her happy. Just being around nice people helped a bunch, too. She practically skipped the last few steps over to the playground, plopping down on the little curb where the rubber mulch met the grass. “I brought pizza! Not in fancy packaging or anything, but, y’know.” She put the box down and patted the ground on the other side of her. “It’s still good.”


She looked over her shoulder at him. “And yeah, definitely not useless, but also?” She sucked her cheeks in, trying to think about how to word stuff. “You’re just getting started, yeah? There’s no pressure to be, like, this perfect soldier right away. You can take time to learn. That’s why we’re here, yeah?”

He was so nervous, and she didn’t want him thinking he was gonna disappoint her.

Put together?

Sylvite couldn't help giggling at that, and she laughed for a good couple seconds. Like, it was also a super sweet compliment and like nothing anyone had ever said to her before, but also? It kinda just wasn't accurate.

"Gismo, just so you know, I'm, uh," she paused and shook her head, "I'm totally the Negaverse's kawaii little weirdo. If you look at the other Generals, they're like, way more elegant and put together. But." The giggles faded into more of a normal smile. "I still try my best to be a good soldier, and I'm still gonna do my best to be a good General for you."

Since he liked pizza, she was apparently doing okay so far.

"I figured we could start with some combat stuff since the goal here is not getting strangled? Hand to hand first, we can work the weapons in later." Glancing at the food between them, she gave a dramatic little sigh and then bounced to her feet. "So yeah, we probably shouldn't eat until after."

Stepping a little bit away from the playground, she asked, "Is there anything you know already?"

“Oooh, a boxing class is a really good idea,” she said. Maybe she would’ve got better at fighting faster if she’d done something like that. Maybe she should go now. She still didn’t know official fighting techniques, just whatever she’d learned in spars and on the fly when she’d gotten attacked.

He was smart.

“Why don’t you show me what you learned in the class, then? Your reflexes and stuff will be a little bit different since you’re powered up, so it’ll be good to practice this way.”

Sylvite bounced forwards and then away, her fists held loosely in front of her face.

“See if you can get a hit on me, yeah?”

Then they could go over his posture and everything.

Even when he was putting his fists up, Gismodine had those big, scared puppy-dog eyes that made Sylvite wonder how long it was going to take for him to actually try punching her. She waited, going quiet and settling into her own stance. She watched him.

Something changed in his face, and a second later he was coming after her.

She jumped backwards out of the path of a swinging fist once, and then sort of ducked sideways away from the second punch.

"Okay," she said, glancing from his feet to his hands. "Okay. Your form seems pretty good." At least, there was nothing glaringly, obviously bad about that. "You just gotta be determined, yeah? I know it's hard, getting used to the fighting stuff, but if you don't hit first and hit hard, the bad guys can be all like-"

Slowly, giving him lots of time to do something to stop her, she reached for his throat.

Just the look in Gismo's eyes was a total punch to the gut.

Then, he actually punched her.

Sylvite didn't try to dodge. She didn't do much of anything other than mutter "Sorry," while his fist was coming towards her, and then gasping because ow.

She deserved it, yeah, but it still hurt. So did the second hit, and the kick.

"Sorry," she said again, stumbling backwards, but she glanced back up to look him in the eyes. "But that's what you do if anyone ever tries to hurt you, yeah?"

Sylvite took a shaky breath and uncurled her fists. Even if she felt pretty bad about it all, it was good to know that he could defend himself if he had to.

"That's enough for now though," she said, quieter. "Let's uh. Let's get the snacks."

"I'm okay," said Sylvite, trying really hard to take deep breaths to fill up her lungs again without it seeming like she was having to fill up her lungs again. She wheezed a little bit despite her best efforts. "I'm fine. You did really good!"

Even if she'd really been trying to strangle him, she didn't think it would've worked with how he fought back, so that was definitely a step in the right direction.

Although, she was mostly still thinking about the way his eyes had looked when she moved at him like that. It made her feel like a real jerk.

She sat down cross-legged next to where they'd set up the food and stuffed an oreo in her mouth before she had a chance to think too much about it.

"Wanna tell me about what you brought? Or take some candy?"

Candy could make anything better, even this.