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“And you?”
“…Nothing at all.”
“Really?” Cider inquires, most of his more vocal surprise somewhat suppressed, yet some still escapes his mouth. Somehow more surprised by the inhuman speed of which Dandy had downed the lemonade once it had given itself permission to.
“I don’t see why…” It mumbles.
The saint’s immediate response was to motion to… well… everything the setting has to offer. Dandy nods but still is hesitant, solid food not as beneficial to its brain compared to liquids.
“Hmm… How about I cancel my order and let you choose your favorite for me?” Cider proposes. “Doesn’t that sound fun?”
Dandy’s fingers curl ever so slightly at this idea. Of course it would remember its favorite foods from its humanity, recalling having implied that in the past. Though, there wasn’t really any downside, was there? It’s not anything super important in the long run, nor is that information anything super useful to Cider.
“…Please be patient.” It quietly picks the menu up for the first time.
Dandy’s visible eye falls back onto the menu, of which it seemingly never bothered to read at all at first, starting with simply water the moment the server arrived but having been swayed into something else at Cider’s suggestion. When was the last time it had a proper treat per-se? This is kind of why Cider had brought it to her favorite restaurant in the first place. He couldn’t even really say that getting it here was the easy part, when it felt like it took heaps of effort to shake the idea of fast food joints out of its head. As beautiful as it was, the wilting insides really sucked to work with.
Even then, when it did go against water, it chose the next most basic beverage on the menu. The average everyday lemonade. There was no talking it out of that decision, especially when its voice had such a forlorn, melancholy feel to it. Well, a melancholy that was noticeably more potent than the usual, obviously. To believe itself to be so beneath even such a basic drink… How saddening, but knowing Dandy, there was certainly something more to it that it refused to show.
Though, soon enough, it speaks once more.
“Calamari…?”
It immediately turns back towards Cider.
“I know it’s expensive… I’m sorry…”
“There’s no issue taken at all.”
There were a multitude of reasons why this would have never been a problem. For starters, this is Cider it’s dining with, after all. Regardless of any other reasons, the menu is handed back to the server and they vanish just as quickly as they came, with an empty glass of lemonade in tow. Cider sips his sweetened iced tea at a snail’s pace, savoring every little moment as he can feel Dandy’s leg bouncing.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Cider sets the tea back down.
The machine begins to shriek a bit, moving its veil over the rest of its face in its embarrassment at the uncontrollable noise in such a populated place, despite the hefty amounts of chatter from the other patrons largely drowning it out. Its leg bounces faster, being barely perceivable in the table but more than intense on the floor.
What could Dandy possibly be scared of this time? Was it seriously her again? How redundant, but also why didn’t she immediately expect that? Regardless, Cider took another sip of his tea and opened his mouth once more.
“Really, you can say it.”
Naturally, Dandy was still hesitant, but Cider’s voice lacked any ill-will. Though, just as it didn’t mean anything for the machine to speak with melancholy, it didn’t mean anything for the saint to speak sweetly. Every little angel would argue that it did, but no matter what, Dandy couldn’t see it through like everybody insisted.
Then again, even when Cider couldn’t see it, he knew that this feeling it gave her before letting out the words only ever meant one thing. One thing that’s only happened, say, once or twice before. Its own curiosity was stitching its mouth shut, and as soon as that seam was ripped, Dandy’s sentence would end with a hook for the first time in a hefty while.
“When it arrives… can you…” Already, the shrieking was picking up, causing it to raise its voice slightly. “…still order what you want?”
Immediately after asking the question, Dandy defensively raises its arms over itself as a handful of steam begins to trickle out of it. The longer Cider goes in silence, the worse this was going to get, so his answer was almost just as fast.
“Alright.”
Dandy hesitates at first, arms quivering, but very slowly lowers them as it registers Cider’s answer. That… was so simple. Nothing was ever that simple. That’s how it knew things to go. Cider can feel its gaze leave him and down to the table as it processed the saint’s response, very slowly but surely quieting down.
However, even as it slowly eased up, the veil had yet to return to its original spot as it, strangely enough, slipped into a small fit of rambling that strips Cider of any emotion that could be easily understood and communicated, almost as though it forgot he was there. Perhaps, alternatively, it mistook him for someone else. All he could do was listen silently at that hardly discernible voice tirade on its hardly discernible thoughts.
“…Calamari isn't dinner. Tiny, cute, innocent goners. Too tiny, cute, innocent. That's what made them goners. I was those things, too. I’m only one of those things. Once you're a goner, you're one of those things. I love them. I can't live on love alone. Believe me, I want to. It's just nowhere near a full meal. It's foolish to eat the tiny, cute, innocent. It's foolish to eat. I'm just one big fool starving itself in the name of love…”
In this moment, it begins to dawn on her. Dandy’s words sound as though it is reading its own writing. It had always been a very touching author; just who was this letter meant to reach, exactly, if this note would leave its possession at all? If this goes on for any longer, will a name get dropped? This night was going splendidly, she’d say.
Unfortunately for Cider, it soon enough realizes that its talking increasingly louder than it thought it was, or maybe it was the fact that it was speaking out loud in the first place that returned the shrieking and steam. Whatever the reason may be, it promptly buried its face in its hands and spoke much quieter with significantly more distress to boot.
“I beg, forget those…”
As curious as the prose was, it's probably a wise idea to avoid dwelling on Dandy’s depressingly esoteric mutterings for any longer. Cider forgives it quickly and earnestly as the steam starts to vanish, albeit much slower than the last breakout.
Dandy returns to a silent, thoughtful state, but before it can actually get anywhere in its mind, the server is back with the calamari as well as a refill on the lemonade. Cider requests to get the menu back, and by the time the server returns a second time, the machine had already downed the second lemonade.
This restaurant appears to serve calamari in the form of small fried bites compared to what Cider was used to at other locations. With no lemonade in tow, Dandy took a small amount of squids in hand and put them on its own plate. Cider’s eyebrow couldn’t help but raise when it had always been so insistent on not eating, but perhaps it had changed its mind. He had also taken a few, popping them into her mouth without another word.
When he took the time to savor the bite-sized appetizer, her headset’s eye opened a tad bit, a sparkle able to be seen within. This wasn’t the first time he’s eaten this, not in the slightest, but this restaurant was surprisingly fascinating when it came to it. How often had Dandy come here in its humanity? Maybe he should try the lemonade the next time he came here, as unremarkable as it appeared to be.
Speaking of Dandy, her gaze fell on the machine again, its eyes still invisible thanks to the veil, but it was certainly very focused. The machine hadn’t taken a single bite of its food, instead peeling away the fried outer shell to reveal the squids inside. It placed a fourth squid on its plate and took to simply staring at the little delights, emotion intangible. Cider attempts to see if her headset can push past the veil and see those eyes, but its simply too thick to pierce through.
It wasn’t steaming up or shrieking anymore, but it wasn’t smiling, either. Cider’s eye shut once more as he took another sip of her tea, letting herself pay less mind to it and letting herself think on her own. He was having lots of fun, and if Dandy was finally starting to feel happy in her company for once, that was beautiful.
“…I’m so foolish.”
Like everything Dandy has rambled on about before, this seems to slip out of its mouth with no conscious realization that Cider can hear it, nor was it spoken with any perceivable sentiment. Cider curiously lifts his head to gauge Dandy’s body language, but it seems to realize faster than before that its words weren’t silent, and its head shoots up with a strong fear and embarrassment that shifts into dread when it sees the saint’s attentiveness. Cider doesn’t say anything, simply waving it off like it was all okay despite knowing that meant nothing and going back to her tea.
Though, he’s not at this tea for long as almost immediately after the complication, Cider can hear a plate being pushed towards her. She looks down and sees Dandy’s peeled calamari presented to him, then back up at it, who’s shrieking very low and quietly. As much as it deeply hurt to do so, he’s given up on trying to read it at this point, knowing he’d drive home hungry if he wasted more time trying.
“I won’t eat them… I’m sorry if its creepy… I… I think they’re cute… but I’m wrong about everything…”
Cider studies the squids for a bit longer. Underneath that protective shell, the little things were pale, squishy, and just the cutest little things he’s ever been served. He almost didn’t want to eat them, and Dandy could tell, but took it in the wrong way as it began to apologize more as it began to pull the plate back in. Cider promptly stopped it, being given it back as she popped them into her mouth.
In an instant, she realized that she highly preferred her squids peeled. There was zero hiding this, with Dandy immediately turning its head away from the saint as the eye had opened up.
Seeing this, Cider quietly calmed herself down with a long sip of tea and a decent exhale. “You’re in the right. If my… everything was anything to go off of.”
“Oh…”
It didn’t even remotely sound like Dandy fully believed him, but it looks like it tried to imply so, anyway. One day it will, and Cider would make sure of it, but for now, Cider had finally managed to get through half of her tea as the server had finally returned with Cider's own order and another lemonade for Dandy. By the time Cider had adjusted her food to perfection, the lemonade was already gone.