Beacons of Love

Tall, Dark, and Delicious

When Honey and Randi first launched Beacons of Love, they'd never imagined how popular it would become. One of them was always logged in, doing their best to keep up with the ever-growing list of applicants eager for their help. Pairing students was relatively easy most of the time. Matching civilians went okay. But there was one clientele she still felt a little uncomfortable with.

"Got another oldie," Randi commented as she pulled up a profile.

At first, the handful of adults had gone unnoticed. They weren't gonna match a student with someone old enough to be their parent, and there were plenty of young people to focus on. Unfortunately, that just led to more and more adult profiles being pushed back, until the pair had found themselves with a massive stack of unmatched individuals. It seemed like every other profile they found now was older. The singles in their thirties weren't too awkward to work with.

The nursing home accounts, however....

"How old?" Honey asked.

"Doesn't say, but I'm guessing middle-aged," Randi answered, scrolling through details. Thank goodness. Honey wasn't really in the mood to do another granny account. "Seems we've got a Huntress on our hands."

"Really?" They didn't have a lot of Huntsmen sign up for their service. The students might be shy, but it seemed the experienced Huntsmen weren't exactly lacking in confidence. Either that, or they were too proud to let a bunch of kids sort things out for them. "Lemme see."

Randi scooted out of the way for her teammate. Honey quickly scanned through the relevant information. The photo was some picturesque beach scene, leaving them little to go on. At least she gave us some details in her bio.

Shanti Conner. Tall. Faunus. Visiting from Mistral. Not much to go on, but they'd dealt with worse. The mention of Huntsman training helped. While Honey jotted down what she felt were useful tidbits, Randi did what she did best.

"Seems a little shy," Randi offered, reading between the lines a little bit. The lack of picture, limited details, and preferred dating venues spoke more than Shanti's own description did. Randi leaned over Honey's shoulder to point out another detail. "Probably hold off on Clemens this time around."

"That's what I was thinking," Honey agreed. Several details hinted at her not really liking crowds. While Clemens wasn't packing people in shoulder-to-shoulder, they'd seen a pretty steep rise in popularity lately. Honey liked to think they'd played a part in that. "Maybe a smaller diner?"

"Café," Randi countered. "Doesn't really strike me as a formal meal type of gal. I'm thinkin' something quick and easy will be more her style."

"Fair enough," Honey agreed, immediately thinking of the café they'd tracked Blake and Sun to months ago. Perfect. Unlike Clemens, she wouldn't need to arrange a reservation, so that was one less thing to worry about. "So, who we settin' her up with?"

"Hmm..." Randi hummed, adding filters to her list of male profiles to narrow things down a bit as she thought out loud. "A little old for the students. Probably prefer a Huntsman. Maybe someone who's traveled a lot." With each specification, the list continued to shrink until only a few names remained. "What about Ruby's Uncle?"

"Qrow?"

"Yeah, him." Sure enough, Qrow Branwen's name remained on the list. As much as Honey felt he might work, she knew better.

"Better not," Honey advised. "He's...sorta taken."

"Really? Who?"

"Weiss's sister," Honey specified, much to Randi's surprise. "You know how I was helping Winter with her investigation? Well, Qrow showed up instead. They told me I could go and had dinner together. Then, yesterday, I saw them at another diner. Sounded pretty serious. He even called her..." Honey grimaced as she forced the word out, "Snookums."