Two weeks later, Ira's Host finally met with the stupid alpha again. At this point in time, Ira was in the middle of watching a movie in the cinema together with Silas, and so he decisively ignored them. Whatever mess they cooked up wasn't his responsibility.

Silas was sitting next to him, holding his hand tightly on the armrest between them. They were sharing a box of popcorn, because Ira had already finished his own. 

Thankfully, Silas had planned ahead and gotten an extra.

Ira was watching the movie, absolutely riveted. It was a zombie movie, which made him feel nostalgic. He wondered what had happened to the world after he left it, if it had been completely swallowed by the zombies. He wished he could have stayed and found out. Imagine trying to survive in a world overrun with zombies; didn't it sound like a blast?

Well, Ira thought so. Anybody who disagreed with him just had bad taste.

An explosion lit up the large screen and Ira's eyes lit up with delight. He leaned forward in his seat from excitement and watched as a guy on a motorcycle (the protagonist of the movie, he guessed) tore away on it from the flames and chasing zombies. Ira waited with bated breath as the guy kept driving, hoping the zombies would catch him.

The zombies didn't catch him.

If it had been Ira (zombified, of course) who had been chasing him, he would have caught him.

What lazy zombies.

He huffed and threw himself back against the chair's backrest. He couldn't cross his arms like he wanted to because Silas was still holding onto his hand so instead, Ira glared at the screen with all the rage of a pissed off movie-watcher.

Silas chuckled next to him and squeezed Ira's hand. "You like the movie?"

"Shh!" Ira furiously shushed him and gave him a narrowed-eyed glare.

He was watching a movie, he didn't want to be interrupted and forced to talk during it. What fun was that?

Silas, thankfully, didn't attempt to talk to him again until after the movie had already ended.

The protagonist died in the end.

Ira loved this movie.

On the way out of the theater, Ira was in such a good mood that he was humming. He even let Silas swing their arms between them, uncaring at the picture they made. In fact, the movie had ended on such a good note that he didn't protest when Silas, instead of taking them home, took them to a restaurant. 

With his elbow on the windowpane in the car, Ira leaned his head on his hand and stared outside at the passing view. Silas had let go of his hand in order to furiously send a bunch of texts on his phone.

Occasionally, Silas would swear and mutter promises of murder under his breath. Ira had the unsettling feeling that Silas wouldn't go through with them.

It didn't take them long to reach the restaurant. Silas had apparently been planning this excursion for a while because every part of the way there was smooth as ice.

The restaurant was one of those fancy ones that Ira saw often on TV and in movies. Where the dramatic breakups and unexpected reunions with tormenters so often occured. High ceilings, gold-framed paintings of elaborate landscapes, mini-chandeliers hanging over every table, red walls... Ira followed after Silas who bypassed the receptionist without even looking at her. Silas led them over a table in a corner, behind a half-wall that kept them apart from the rest of the restaurant.

Ira settled down on his seat and then looked up at Silas, concerned at the weird way he was acting. Why was his hand held out? Why did he had a wry smile on his lips? 

Why did he shake his head, laugh and sit down across from Ira just to steal Ira's hand again?

The world may never know. It was one of the great mysteries of the universe, unanswerable in its complexity.

Ira sighed.

A waiter came by and handed them the menus, because a restaurant like this had to have seven different ones. There was a whole pile in front of both of them. A little exasperated at the overeagerness of humans, Ira opened up the one at the top of the pile and started browsing.

He promptly closed it again.

"You chose." he ordered Silas. He trusted Silas to know what Ira liked.

"Alright." Silas smiled gently at him and picked a menu himself.

While waiting for Silas to make up his mind, Ira's focus shifted to his Host. His Host was in the middle of having dinner with the alpha he had had intercourse with at a restaurant, sitting across from the alpha. The alpha seemed to be in the midst of ignoring his Host in order to play around with his phone, while Ira's Host was obviously uncomfortable.

Ira zoomed in on them and changed the perspective. There was something familiar about the restaurant... he peered around it and stopped when he saw his current body sitting across from Silas in an isolated corner.

Crap.

...They were at the same restaurant, weren't they?

In an instant, Ira was looking through his physical eyes again and he stared with a disappointed gaze at Silas. 

Silas' eyebrows furrowed and he asked, "What is it?"

"You had to pick this restaurant?"

Silas narrowed his eyes at him and demanded, "What's wrong with it?"

Ira didn't respond, he just tilted his head in the direction of his Host. He watched as Silas' eyes followed and found the people he had attempted to point out. Silas frowned and turned back to Ira, wondering, "You have a problem with them?"

"I don't like them."

Ira didn't bother saying why. It wasn't any of Silas' business.

Silas' eyes narrowed again and he glared over at the mismatched couple. He took out his phone and sent a quick text, presumably ordering someone to find out who they were. Then a waitress walked up to their table and took their orders.

Like Ira had asked, Silas ordered for him and Ira didn't bother to pay any attention to the process. If he didn't like it, he'd just complain and get Silas to bake him something as compensation.

Actually, perhaps he would complain even if he did like it...

The waitress left.

Silas leaned over the table and at this point, Ira was well aware of what this gesture meant. It meant that Silas wanted to hold Ira's hand while they waited for the food and the man was going to pout for the entire dinner if Ira didn't let him. Granted, that could be fun too, but at this particular moment, Ira didn't have anything against holding Silas' hand so he might as well, right? He stretched out his arm and put his hand next to Silas' on the table. Within seconds, Silas had captured it again.

A warmth traveled from Ira's hand and flowed down his arm toward his heart. It made something twist in his stomach, which Ira took as confirmation that he was going to complain in order to get Silas to bake him something.

He had eaten the last cupcake yesterday and Silas had been so busy working he hadn't had time to make another batch. 

Ira was starting to suffer from withdrawals.

The food came by within half-an-hour according to Ira's internal clock. He had spent the time determinedly ignoring both the gentle looks Silas kept sending him as well as the presence of his Host by reading a book in his mind. He had almost finished it by the time the food arrived.

Ira almost sighed as he watched the waitress sit down a plate full of delicious-looking food in front of him. By the smell alone, he had no doubt that hew as going to enjoy it.

Lying it was, then.

It didn't take Ira long to finish the meal. He enjoyed it so it wasn't the usual chore of trying to get proper nutrition for his frail human body. As such, he tore through it like he was starving which... might actually be the case. Excluding the popcorn, he couldn't remember the last time that he had eaten.

Hmm... well, at least he was eating now. That was good, right?

Silas certainly seemed to think so, with the way he was watching Ira.

A loud crash made Ira jump in his seat, unprepared as he was for it. He had swirled his head around quickly and caught sight of his Host standing across from a waiter that was sitting on the ground, a pool of broken dishes laying in pieces around him. His Host was staring at the waiter with shocked eyes and the entire restaurant was looking over at them.

Ira wondered what had happened, so he played the video back just a few seconds. Apparently his Host had walked right into the waiter in an attempt to run away from the alpha.

Ira rose an eyebrow and settled down more comfortably in his chair, intent on watching on how the rest of this panned out. He had a premium seat, and though he hadn't asked for it, obviously he was going to take advantage of it!

He stared as his Host tried to apologize, stuttering all the while, while the waiter on the floor got helped up by another restaurant worker. His Host shrank back as he was given vicious looks by the rest of the restaurant goers and looked over to the alpha — probably for support? But the alpha was on the phone and wasn't paying his Host any attention.

His Host gulped visibly and bowed to the waiter, "Sorry, sorry."

The waiter frowned at him and stated, "Look where you're going."

His Host got a look in his eyes, as if he thought he was being looked down upon. But really, the man was right. In the few seconds until his Host's next sentence, Ira had looked up a Buch of stuff about this restaurant and turned out; it was super fancy and luxurious. The waitstaff went through months of rigorous training and were the best of the best; they had earned the right to look down on rude customers who made a mess of things.

"Aren't you being too rude?" his Host furrowed his brows.

Ira took a gulp of the wine and delighted in the furious looks his Host were getting thrown — without his Host's notice.

The alpha stood up from his seat and Ira's Host gave the man a relieved look. The alpha walked over and looked at the waiter. "I'll the bill now." he demanded and another waiter hurried over, seemingly having anticipated this.

As he payed, the alpa said to his Host, "Be more careful in the future. I'm not going to pay for your every mistake."

"Pffft!" Ira spewed out his wine and burst out into laughter, bent over his table. The alpha, what, thought that was cool? That he sounded manly, and dominant and attractive? The man's sheer disconnect from reality was almost cute.

"Hahaha... seriously~?" Ira couldn't stop laughing, the image of the man confirming his manliness in front of mirror and practicing lines like this too hilarious.

His Host snapped back, "I didn't ask you to pay for it!"

Well, yeah, but you were going to, right? The food here was ridiculously expansive and several fancy cutlery had been broken too... there was no way he had the money to pay for all of that. Ira tilted his head sideways as a thought him and he turned and asked Silas:

"Would you pay for my mistakes?"

"Of course." Silas stated simply and smiled charmingly at him.

Ira nodded to himself, reassured. "Good." he said and smiled back at Silas, not nearly as disgusted as he should have been. 

In the background, his Host had gotten into a passionate argument with the alpha, but Ira was too busy eating the ice-cream Silas had ordered for him to care. Fancy restaurants had fancy ice-cream in actual tall glasses, who knew?