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Don't slouch.
But all Aqua wanted to do was cross her forearms on the table and lean forward to stare him down skeptically. It was not often he wanted to go somewhere this nice with her, somewhere that he'd have to trade his cloak for a nice suit. He did clean up nice, she gave him that.
Don't slouch, you're a Keyblade Master. Pull your shoulders back. Besides, this dress will be horribly unflattering if you slouch.
She looked him over regardless. Her... partner. She felt a small twisting in her stomach, but took a deep breath to calm it. Partner, that had been her request. Some level of commitment so she knew her time was not wasted. She was a Keyblade Master, she had important work to take care of, and Ven and Terra to keep her company. She was far from lonely, she had no time to be.
Her time with this piercing-laden smirk on legs was a courtesy she had extended to him. Though... admittedly, she enjoyed his company.
Aqua pulled her shoulders up, back, lifted her head slightly and smiled. Relaxed a little. Ven's skepticism of the commitment-phobic Nobody tended to rub off on her. Untouched by time, she tried to sympathize with his point of view. After all, she now sat in a beautiful restaurant in a rather lovely dress, fifteen years from the time she was supposed to be in, looking the same as when she first entered the Realm of Darkness.
That was neither here nor there. "This is a bit of a surprise from you. It's not often you take me somewhere so nice, did you call in a favor for this?" Her tone had a playfully teasing edge to it. If he had, she'd be legitimately surprised, but this banter... this banter was comforting.
"Of course I did, just to keep you guessing who our mystery sponsor is."
Aqua (predictably as far as he was concerned, she was sure) rolled her eyes, letting out a small sigh.
"Though I have to admit, I hadn't imagined that you would have such a time with the drink menu. Do you need a recommendation?"
He got so much enjoyment out of irritating her. She took in a deep, slow breath, and her sharp exhale following was met with an infuriatingly amused smirk. He drove her insane and he did this on purpose. She closed her eyes as she let the biting remarks she wanted to say wash away before settling on, "No, I'm fairly certain I can handle this, thank you."
She was far from surprised when a mojito was ordered by her partner, but piqued an eyebrow that he asked them to skip the garnishes. He usually ordered them with more fruit than ice. Dwelling on it was pointless, of course. How he ordered his beverages had no weight on her.
The Keyblade Master found something of her own to order, and the meal proceeded as a typical date with the platinum blonde Nobody usually did. Banter, irritated sighs, playful jabs, laughter, and no spoken word of love.
It was... comfortable, in a way, to keep those words off the table for them. She would tell Ven every day how much she loves them for the rest of their lives, giving the smaller Keybearer a kiss on the forehead before he left for an assignment. Her motherly affection toward Ventus was something she would never be shy about telling him, she'd learned that lesson already.
But with Luxord... the feeling of her heart in her throat when their lips met didn't need to be spoken. She didn't want a "heartfelt" speech from the Nobody, she was perfectly fine with his company as it was.
By the time the small slice of cake Luxord had suggested she order was placed in front of her, she'd been so wrapped up in their conversation that she hadn't noticed he'd been brought another mojito without garnish, and that a small box had been slipped onto the table between them by the server. When Luxord clearly pretended to notice it for the first time, Aqua had to wonder if he really had been joking about calling in a favor tonight.
"Ah, a special delivery?" his fake surprise was so obvious, she almost laughed. A gambler with an infamous poker face putting on a playfully poor charade, Aqua let a small smile tug the corners of her lips at that. "I wonder, what could possibly be inside."
With a soft sigh, she accepted his invitation, reaching over to the box and removing the lid, pausing almost immediately. A star-shaped fruit, bright yellows and oranges, the legend her Wayfinder was based on, a story she'd told Luxord. "This is... a Paopu fruit."
He'd reacted as expected when she told him the story before. Amused, with that small hint of almost nervous curiosity, that half-anticipation of her asking him to entwine their destinies. She'd known better, of course, neither of them would ever suggest such a thing.
Or so she had thought. Her eyes took on the hardness of skepticism once more. It seemed a rather over the top joke, Luxord was... playful, but he wasn't the kind of pull stunts like this. And if he were, she certainly wasn't the type to appreciate it and he knew it. "You can't be serious, Luxord."
He shook his head, a tone of appreciation in his voice. "I've been told I have a hell of a poker face, yes, but this would be quite the expensive prank."
Then what is it, then? Her eyes softened slightly, a small glint of confusion pushing away the skepticism a little. "It did seem to be a bit over the top for you, yes," she looked up from the fruit to meet his gaze, quickly dropping back down to the box. "But I have to admit your real intentions are lost on me if that's not the case."
Luxord leaned forward a bit, putting his elbows onto the table, she saw his movement and lifted her head again, meeting his gaze with curiosity. He smiled, a familiar playful gleam in his eyes. What is he planning? "You once told me that marriage is off the table. Keyblade master business and all that entails. Here we have a way to bend those rules, what do you say?"
An immediate skip in her chest left her reeling. "Wh-what?" she could feel the heat rising to her face, pulled her shoulders back almost defiantly to the quickly-spreading blush in her cheeks. Calm down, Aqua. She took a deep breath, trying to mask her shaking voice with a playful tone. "We're sitting rather far from a window for you to make that kind of a request."
"Request, offer... Unless you're looking to jump, I don't think we're in need of a window right now."
He was so calm, and she knew it was because she wasn't. The balance they had, the... time they shared, was it something she could afford to-- hold on to? He was right, Keyblade Masters were not family sorts, so of course she could never settle with a family. Terra and Ven were her family. And up until now her partnership with Luxord had seemed the perfect level of commitment for them both.
Could it be more? She'd never thought she'd be faced with that question, not with him. Her heart raced. These legends, they were more real than anyone realized, but something of this gravity wouldn't be something Luxord proposed lightly.
She pulled her shoulders back again, taking in a breath and sharply exhaling. He piqued an eyebrow, the corner of his lip tugging into an amused smirk like it always did when she huffed. And that expression always made her want to huff a second time. But this time, the familiarity of the reaction was comforting. "I think that jumping from this distance would cause a bit of a scene. So I believe I'll pass on the jumping-- and accept."
Luxord half didn't expect Aqua to accept, even with the eyebrow quirk. "Let's not hesitate until we get cold feet, then," he put the Paopu on the edge of his glass, looking up at her with a smirk. "Besides, I've always wondered if Destiny made a good garnish."
