The hundreds of different dining venues in the entertainment district provided a vast range of atmosphere, food, and entertainment, which cater to any preference or taste. Most of the restaurants also had a choice of either a private room or a table in the public dining areas. This caused a lot of confusion as they tried to balance the risks of eating in either place, and the possibility of being spied on, attacked, or poisoned.
In the end, TO choose the private room with music playing in the background. They could treat the room like they used to their pods, letting the music drown out their words and being very careful of what they said. It would also be harder for someone to sneak up on them in the private room, to slip a poison in their food when they weren’t looking, or attack them suddenly with a hidden weapon. If they got ambushed, TO had no concerns about the combat abilities of two highly trained synths against some civilian insurgents.
“Did we do anything wrong?” DH asked once they had settled into their seats. Much like at the bar, the table they sat at had a platform in the center where their food and drinks would come to them.
“Maybe? I suppose most civilians have their ID numbers memorized.” When they showed up for their reservation, there had been some confusion since TO and DH never gave themselves civilian last names. That wasn’t a problem, as many cultures didn’t have last names, but those who didn’t were more reliant on their civilian ID numbers. TO, of course, didn’t have their number memorized, and had to look it up on their communicator .
“Not that.” DH said, “I meant back at the museum.” Before they could say anything else, the table opened up, and the platform brought them two glasses of sparkling water along with fancy paper menus. TO picked up one as though it were a delicate treasure, and ran their fingers over the thick, creamy paper, feeling the texture and the slight bump of the lettering.
Paper was so wasteful; nobody really used it anymore since everything was digital and since there were much better uses for the plants that were often used to make it.
“I just don’t know why Mr. Venturi seemed so…” They frowned, their ears twitching as they tried to come up with the right words, “I don’t know, so dismissive? I don’t think he liked me.”
“Pearla didn’t seem to like him.” TO said, finally opening up the menu, “She called him an ass, remember? Also, that word he used to refer to legless people - Slith- I looked it up on the way here-“
“The translator said it was slang-“
“And my research said it was a slur.” TO said, “A bad one.” They shook their head, “I don’t think we did anything wrong; I think Pearla might be right-“
“She’s just a civilian.” DH muttered.
“So’s Venturi.” TO said.
“She’s also an insurgent.”
“Venturi was being rude to you.” TO leaned forward, their ears pinning back, “We told him you prefer DH, but he kept calling you Demileigh-“
“Well, that didn’t bother me.” DH said, glancing away with their ears twitching with their attempted deception. “Didn’t bother me much, anyway.” They added.
“It might not, despite that, you have a preferred name, and we told him that. He didn’t use it.”
DH shrugged, “Well… That’s what our superiors do anyway, right?” DH said, “They call us by our proper names, not our nicknames. C12 was the only one who called us by our nicknames before. How is it different?”
“It just is. It’s different among civilians. He was being rude.”
DH sighed and picked up their menu. Much like TO, they held it carefully as though it might break, and ran their fingers over the paper as they read it, “I just… I can’t see someone who makes such beautiful things being bad, you know?” They frowned, looked over the menu, then looked up to TO, “I'm going to ask Lendulin about it.”
TO felt their ears perk up. “Really?”
“She doesn’t seem as hostile towards him as Pearla, and she even worlds with him. Besides, Pearla’s an insurgent; we can’t trust what she says.”
That was true; Pearla was an insurgent and treated both DH and TO with a certain icy coolness. Still, TO felt more at ease around her than they had around Venturi.
“I just… I liked his work so much. I guess I hoped he’d like me. I shouldn't have said anything about Lendulin.”
TO quickly placed their own order, and set their menu down, “Let’s not talk about it.” TO said, “We can talk about it tomorrow. Today, I just want to spend time with you.”
DH gave a quick smile, though their ears dipped back. “Sorry.” They said, “I enjoyed the museum though!” They suddenly brightened. “Can you imagine getting to wear half of the stuff we saw? Civilians can wear that stuff all the time! And the way they have their patterns made, it’s just math and geometry, but for fashion! A mathematical equation to clothing!” Their ears went up, twitching in excitement. “I bet you could make a computer program to design clothing patterns, and use old design techniques from the museum to make some really nice things!”
DH went on about how such a program would work, getting into the finer details of programming. TO themself had never delved into programming like DH had, and didn’t understand half of what they were saying. They also didn’t understand DH’s love of clothing, but that didn’t matter. They knew they could sit and watch DH be happy and excited about something for hours upon hours, and be content for every second. Tonight, DH looking so ethereal just made watching them a more divine treat than it normally would be.
DH talked until their appetizers came. They had ordered this specialty roasted purple vegetable that the chef cut to bloom outwards when cooked like a flower; the meat plumping up and bulging with juice. The artistic way some civilians prepared food still surprised TO. How long had it taken to cut the vegetable so that it bulged out just right? How much trial and error had this taken? They didn’t want to eat it; they wanted to take it home and keep it on display.
“You know you’re supposed to eat it, right?” DH said after TO had been just looking at it for a few minutes. They had already taken several big bites out of their own serving. “It tastes better than it looks.”
TO felt their ears flush as they picked up their fork and took a bite; they were right; it tasted better than it looked; savoury, slightly sweet, and with a firm texture that allowed the juices to burst forth when TO bit into it. They closed their eyes, letting the taste linger in their mouth as their ears moved in a slow, languid fashion.
This moment, here with DH, with the food, the smells, the privacy, it was all perfect.
“… I can’t wait.” DH said. They set their fork down and picked up their bag from the floor, rummaging around for something.
“Wait for what?” TO said, suddenly looking up from their meal.
“I have something for you.” DH said, “I was going to wait until later to give it to you; I was going to find the perfect time, but-” They glanced up, their ears twitching in amusement, a grin on their lips, “But you look so cute, so excited. The way you looked at that dish, the way your ears went when you tasted it, was just adorable!” They grinned as they pulled a small white box, tied up with black ribbon, from their bag. “I just… I just can’t wait.” They slid the box to TO, “Here; for you.”
Their ears were brining from being called adorable, and now being given a present left them flustered. They sputtered a bit before they could actually speak. “You didn’t need to get my anything!”
“Well, you didn’t need to hire a carriage, or get me flowers and chocolate!” DH said, their blue tinted ears flicking, “So just accept it! I think you’ll like it.” Their ears dipped back, “I hope you’ll like it.”
TO couldn’t guess what DH had for them. They opened the box, excited to see what it was.
It was the gem that they had given DH, or at least half of it. The former egg pod had cracked when the bugs emerged from it, and TO hadn’t looked at it for fear of seeing dead bugs left behind. It was clean now, polished and smoothed to look more like half a heart. Someone had filled the interior with a bright purple resin, and attached a silver chain to the top.
“… This took most of my time today.” DH admitted as TO looked over the gem. “I.. Well, I was sad that it broke, so I looked into getting it fixed! I found someone who could do it, but they couldn’t see me until today, so I got up really early and went out to see them.” They reached back into their bag and pulled out the other half of the gem, which looked more or less like TO’s. “There were a few suggestions, but in the end the artisan said that turning it into matching necklaces would be the best idea.” They put their necklace on, beaming, but then they suddenly faltered, “but… well, I know you don’t wear necklaces or jewellery or anything like that, so maybe it was a bad idea-“
Before DH could say anything else, TO put the necklace on, beaming as they looked at the polished half heart.
“… And it doesn’t bother you that it used to be an egg pod?” DH asked with their ears down, “I worried about that, but I also didn’t want to just get something new, I wanted to do something with this because…” They glanced away, “Because it’s the first romantic thing you did for me, right? Even if it didn’t work the way you wanted it to, you saved it to give to me, to tell me how you felt about me, and even if it didn’t work how you wanted, you still gave it to me on the day we uh… became a couple.” They looked at their plate, suddenly very interested in their food, “I’m sorry… I should have gotten something new that wasn't an old bug egg.”
“I love this bit of bug egg!” TO said firmly. “And I'm happy you saved it. I’m happy you weren’t mad that it ended up being a bug egg in the first place!” They shuddered, “It had live bugs in it.” Their ears dipped down, “I’m so sorry for that.”
DH chuckled, “I think that bothered you more than me.” They said, “But it worked out in the end! The artisan said that some couples have matching jewellery to symbolise that they’re a couple and to remind them of one another.” They looked down at their plate, “So… if we do ever get separated, we’ll at least have this.”
TO touched the pendant, letting their fingers wrap around it, “They won’t separate us.” TO said. “I’ll do whatever I can to keep that from happening.”
DH gave a wide smile, though their ears were still down a little, “Well. it doesn’t matter now!” They said. They picked up the drink that came with the appetizer - some kind of wine that went well with it - and lifted a glass. “A civilian style toast to just enjoying our time together.” They gave a nervous smile. “To us?”
“To us.” TO said as they clinked their glass against DH’s. I won’t let us get separated, they thought to themself. Never.
