So, apparently Penguin was better at Dungeons and Realms than me and Gran combined.
"Maybe I should consider this cheating," Gran said, scratching under Penguin's chin. "Penguin is too good."
Penguin chirped happily.
"No cheating, you agreed to let him team up with me from the beginning."
Penguin waddled around, looking delighted at the praise, before zeroing in on the board again and tapping at another location with his beak.
Damn, he was right again. What was this sorcery.
I moved my token there and grinned at Gran who was glaring at the board from above her glasses.
I'd had half a mind to get pizza for Gran on my way here, but if I didn't eat it with her she'd get suspicious and Llewellyn and I were supposed to have dinner together tonight. Since Yeonvale Residences had a pretty amazing restaurant, I supposed she could order something later on if she didn't want to cook, so… I guess I could skip it this week. I had to make sure to bring one next time, though.
Still, I was glad I had come. I'd missed Gran and I ended up having a great time. Besides, it was good to see her treatment had continued without issues since moving here and she was still doing well.
When I got back to Llewellyn's place, I found him sitting on the floor, playing with Lumos.
I grinned. Lumos ran toward me immediately, wagging his tail and asking for a head scratch, and I picked him up.
"Hey you," I told him, "did you have fun?"
Penguin jumped out of my pocket then started running in a circle around my feet, demanding I put Lumos down so he could say hi too.
"Alright, alright," I said, grinning, and left them to it.
Llewellyn reached up, tugged at my wrist and pulled me down on the floor with him.
…Okay, fine. We could kiss here if he wanted.
"All good?" he asked when he pulled back, looking down at me. I wasn't exactly sure when I'd ended up flat on my back but here I was.
"Yeah," I said, pulling him in again so we could make out more. "We had fun."
Llewellyn grinned and kissed me again. A few moments later, he got up and extended a hand to haul me up, before moving to the kitchen to turn the coffee machine on.
"About tonight," he said. "We have two different options. You can decide which one you prefer."
What? Me?
"You choose," I said, waving my hand. I mean, I just wanted to go out with him, I didn't really care where.
"I couldn't choose," Llewellyn said. "So you'll have to."
Uh?
"Option one," he said, putting a leaflet on the table, "is this place. The System managed to get us a table."
I looked down at it. Wait—wasn't this that high-end place you had to book half a year in advance?!
…Did I even have anything to wear to go to this place?!
"It's already booked," Llewellyn said. "We could go or cancel, up to you."
"What's the second option?" I asked.
"...My Core Partition," Llewellyn said, eyeing me. "There are a couple of great restaurants there, too."
"Obviously your Core Partition," I said immediately, putting the leaflet down. Did he even have to ask? "How is it you can't decide? Unless going to your Core Partition doesn't count as going out to you?"
"That's not the problem," Llewellyn said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Then?
"If we go there," he said, "I'll probably just end up taking you on the table and that will be that."
…Uh.
"And that's a problem how, exactly?"
I mean, that sounded like an incentive to me.
…Damn, now I was picturing it.
Llewellyn looked at me and… his ears went red.
"I thought you wanted a proper date?" he said after a moment.
"I just meant a date not interrupted by an emergency teleportation or sudden fight," I said. "Not that we should necessarily sit somewhere and gaze into each other's eyes."
I mean, we could do that if he wanted, but that probably just meant we'd have to cut the date short to teleport home to take each other's clothes off.
"So your vote is—"
"Core Partition," I said. "One hundred percent."
"…"
"What?"
"I'm going to make coffee," Llewellyn said. "Then I'm going to go to the other room, so I won't jump you before we even leave."
I grinned.
"What's the dress code?" I asked. "Prior to the naked part, I mean."
Llewellyn groaned.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
This place was insane and was every bit as impressive as the one that needed to be booked six months in advance.
We were on a rotating platform with an incredible view, and the ground floor outside had a swimming pool, all lit up with small spotlights.
I'd initially put on one of the button-down shirts I'd grabbed last time we'd gone to the mall, but Llewellyn had seen me and gone, "then wear mine" so… I was wearing his.
I mean, this was a date; if he wanted me to do that, I was happy to. I remembered he was quite territorial and liked me wearing his clothes, so.
…Besides, I also liked wearing his clothes.
Anyway, the place sounded busy, even though there was no one around. The ambient sound was definitely on point. There were also menus and linen napkins floating around, as if held by invisible waiters.
"So we're actually going to eat," I said, "or…"
"We're going to eat," Llewellyn said. He suddenly looked amused. "Then we'll see."
Uh.
"Hey," I said. "You can't present me with the table option like that and then take it back!"
"I'm not taking it back," Llewellyn said, pulling my chair back for me, gentlemanly, and inviting me to sit. "Maybe I have other ideas, too."
Well, good.
…Wait. Other ideas?
Also. Um. Now what. Were we going to just have a normal—
Two menus flew toward us, landing on the table in front of us.
Okay, maybe not that normal, but.
Llewellyn picked up his menu, going through it.
"What if we play a game?" he asked.
Uh?
"Fire away," I said.
Llewellyn reached over and turned my menu to a specific page, upside down from where he sat.
"Ten-course menu?" I said, blinking down at it. What was the game, then?
Llewellyn pointed to the top of the page, where it said, "Elemental Cuisine."
What even was Elemental Cuisine? Was that a thing?
"Explain," I said, inspecting the page.
Llewellyn grinned.
"Each of the dishes in these courses is cooked with an Element. It doesn't tell you which unless you ask."
…Okay, I could see where this was going.
"So you want us to guess?" I asked.
That sounded fun. Would I even be able to tell?
"Yes," Llewellyn said. "And whenever we get it wrong, we take an item of clothing off."