voidseeing | Appointments Post

[He considers this for all of two seconds.]

Deal. He's usually teasing me about my tactics-- thinks I'm too reckless sometimes. That's one thing I've never denied. I'm not sure I'd call that embarrassing, though.

That's it? [Elizabeth looks disappointed and pouts.] I figured that out when you put me up on a table.

I would consider that to be in the "shameless" and "lacking good judgment" categories rather than "reckless."

But if you want something embarrassing...

[He grins, lowering his voice.]

I was terrified of bugs when I was a child.

[Elizabeth laughs quietly, leaning forward on the table. Clearly she's very excited by this little revelation. Probably because:]

I opened a tear to get rid of a bee once.

[Gai can't help but laugh too.]

Is the punch line to this going to be that it didn't work?

[Elizabeth considers for a moment, raising her eyebrows and shrugging.] It did! But... sometimes they let worse things than bees in.

[He's about to try to shift the subject again before it starts veering off on a somewhat depressing tangent when they're interrupted by the arrival of the food.

... and man, is it a lot of food. Gai asked for what basically amounted to a sampler of Japanese cuisine, and it's clear that the chef went all out: there's takoyaki, some sushi, yakitori, gyoza, onigiri, tempura, a plate of yakisoba, an okonomiyaki to split, and bowls of miso soup for them both.

Well. Gai is starting to think he made a good choice with the menu selection here.]

[Wow... that is a lot of food.]

[Elizabeth watches, fascinated as the food is shuffled onto the table. She's never seen food like this before. The yakisoba looks a little like pasta, and the soup looks familiar too. But the rest of it is all wonderfully unfamiliar.]

What do we eat first?

Whatever you want. Unfortunately we don't make much use of tomatoes in our cooking, so I'm afraid that's the one thing I couldn't find a way to work in.

[But there's pasta and chicken there, yes. Probably unlike any sort of pasta or chicken she's ever had before, but hey, tonight is a night of firsts!]

[And now Elizabeth sees what Gai did with her boring list of foods and she smiles. Incredibly thoughtful, though Elizabeth didn't expect Gai to not have a clever trick up his sleeve.]

It all looks delicious. [She picks up her fork and reaches for one of the gyoza.] I don't know how we're going to finish it all.

Anything we don't finish, we can just take back to my apartment for lunch tomorrow.

[He's already going for the takoyaki-- okay, so it's not the fresh-from-a-street-vendor kind, but it's close enough for him.]

That thing you just picked up is a gyoza-- it's a type of dumpling. And this is takoyaki, which is sort of like a pastry with octopus in it.

[Yes, he said octopus.]

Octopus... [Yes, that's something she's only read about and seen pictures of.] I never knew people ate octopus!

[She takes a bite of the gyoza, chews thoughtfully, and clearly likes the result.]

We do in Japan. Fish and seafood are easy to come by when you live on an island.

[He pauses, takoyaki still grasped in his chopsticks.]

Do you want to try one?

I suppose so. That must be why fish and chips is so popular in England. [...maybe...? She finishes the other half of the gyoza, which as luck would have it is just as delicious as the first half.]

First time for everything, right? [She reaches for one with her fork.]

[But Gai is already holding that one out to her with a smile. No cooties, he hasn't put his chopsticks in his mouth yet.]

I hear fish and chips and a beer in an English pub is on the list of required life experiences, not that I've had personal experience to be able to judge.

[She raises her eyebrows, unfamiliar with the gesture. Her first thought is to get it with the fork, but clearly that's not happening. So apparently he wants her to...]

[She leans forward and takes it with her teeth first. Then she has a bit of trouble getting the whole thing into her mouth and wow that's hot. But it's probably pretty funny to watch her try to eat it. She's laughing silently at least, there are images of her with squirrel cheeks in her mind.]

I haven't heard it's required, but it does sound fun.

[If she looks at Gai's face at any point during this process, it will be clear that he is both amused and finds that whole thing to be sort of adorable (though there's a brief moment of concern where he worries that it might've been too hot to eat). Yes, that was definitely a good choice. And from the looks of things, she liked it, too.]

Maybe one day we can see if we can get them to make some for us here. It won't be quite the same, but we can pretend.

Next time, let's do that. [Elizabeth looks around at the spread again.] But I think I should try some fish that's not out of a can first... Which one?

[Well, this fish is most assuredly not from a can... in fact, it's still raw, as he's pointing to the sushi plate right now.]

The darker one is tuna, that's salmon next to it, and then yellowtail and mackerel. I can guarantee you that none of them have ever seen a can in their life. Or their afterlife.

[Elizabeth has heard of tuna and salmon, so of course the one she goes for is the yellowtail. even if the tuna looks very pretty...]

[She looks at the sushi from all angles, wondering how best to do this.]

Should I just....? [She makes a scooping motion with her fork. It doesn't seem right to stab it...]

[It's just now occurring to Gai that of course she wouldn't know how to use chopsticks; in fact, she might not even have seen them outside of illustrations in a book. As fun as lessons in the proper use of chopsticks might be, he's not quite sure a romantic date is the time or place for that.]

Unless you want to try your hand at the chopsticks.

[Elizabeth looks at Gai's hand holding the chopsticks, bites her lip nervously and finally shakes her head.] I think you're having enough fun watching me try to eat with something I'm used to. Don't need to throw something else in the mix.

[Fortunately he doesn't seem disappointed by this decision at all-- the lessons can wait for another time.]

Especially not when you're wearing such a beautiful dress. I'd hate to be responsible for getting it stained or ruined.

How do you eat rice with two sticks anyway? [Elizabeth awkwardly uses her fingers to slide the yellowtail sushi onto her fork, making a face as though trying to concentrate on getting each grain on her fork.]

[He's not watching her attempt this... okay yes he is, he can't help himself. That face is extremely cute.]

With practice, and a considerable amount of trial and error. Mostly error in the beginning.

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