Cafe Fina, Sunday

[puppy_fair]

Zack was in a good mood today at work!

Or, rather, he was smiling a good deal, which wasn't necessarily the same thing with Zack, but it wasn't as though the dishes could tell the difference. Either way, they were going to continue feeding him cookies and directing him off to corners to do mindless busy work. He terrorized fewer customers that way.

Today's Specials:
Ravioli with Asparagus and Gorgonzola Cream

Being made to fold inanimate cloth napkins in the corner, however, wasn't going to stop him from pointing out that the gorgonzola smelled kind of like dirty socks.

Cafe Fina was open.

[And the OCD ran away with the spoon.]

Comments

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Jennifer entered work and looked at the special.

"...Gorgonzola cream?" she said to herself. It didn't sound good, in her head.

[puppy_fair]

"It smells just like feet," Zack reported, a little too proudly, from where he was folding napkins. "But it tastes loads better, honest."

Like cheese. Creamy cheese.

It was that delicious sort of meal that went straight to your butt.

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"I've never tasted feet, so I'll have to take your word, there," Jennifer said, amused. "So, feeling better I see?"

[puppy_fair]

"A bit," Zack replied, though he was frowning slightly now that his 'don't ever talk about it and maybe it will go away' philosophy took a solid knock upside the head. "I mean, I haven't heard anything from back home, so nothing's probably changed, but... it's not so much of a shock, I guess, anymore."

He shifted his weight a little, turned around, and pulled himself to his feet to face her. The smile was back, but it was more 'brave little toaster' than 'happy puppy.'

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Good," Jennifer said. Even though she was bothered by the fact he'd talked to Ino and not her, she wasn't going to make him talk about it here. "Now then, how do I get some service from my favorite waiter?"

Yes, she'd intended for that to sound a little dirty.

[puppy_fair]

"I suppose you'd start by asking nicely?" Zack's smile was working its way toward 'teasing little grin,' now, even as he managed to almost completely miss those dirty undertones. Almost. "What can I do for you, Jen?"

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"That's a dangerous question," Jennifer said. "But let's start with a table, okay?"

[puppy_fair]

"Fortunately, we have tables," Zack dutifully reported, gesturing around the room with one hand. "Booth? Window seat? Today's been pretty slow, so it's lady's choice."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Booth," Jennifer decided. "We don't need gawkers looking in at us. Because you're sitting with me, at least for a little bit."

[puppy_fair]

Zack glanced at the dishes.

The dishes, sensing an opportunity to get Zack to stop terrorizing the customers without having to listen to him whine about the past three hours of napkin folding, all nodded merrily. Booth! Go! Shoo!

And so Zack shrugged and gestured toward a booth by the corner of the room.

"Right this way, then."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Perfect," Jennifer said, smiling as she followed him. "So are you... do you even have Christmas at home?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack shook his head, no, as he flopped into the seat at the booth.

"It's not Earth," he pointed out. "There is an annual winter celebration, where ShinRa brings in a tree and lights it up so that people get to see something green at least once a year, but other than that? I'm still trying to figure out what all of this stuff that the island keeps throwing around is all about."

... It had taken Zack nearly a week and a half to realize that there was some kind of theme going on with all of the daily weirdness, yes. It wasn't that he was necessarily slow on the uptake, so much as he'd been enjoying the distraction of the random cookies and music and jingly bells and candy too much to stop and think about it very hard.

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"So that means you're probably staying here for the holidays?" Jennifer asked. She herself was going home. Even with the fighting, she couldn't leave her dad alone at Christmas.

[intraspective]

Ino was bored and enabled and she had a totally awesome hat and she knew that Zack worked on Sundays.

So.

"Zaaack," she carolled. "Isn't this hat the best thing ever? I can't get rid of it no matter how many times I take it off!"

[puppy_fair]

Zack... Didn't have a hat on. It was like his head resisted such things. It was possibly the hair. He managed to get away without ever having to wear a SOLDIER helmet, too.

"... If it's the best thing ever, why would you keep taking it off?" He blinked over at Ino, and then offered her a bit of a lopsided grin. "It is kinda cute, though. It's fuzzy!"

He was incorrigible.

[intraspective]

"'Cause I wanted to brush my hair this morning?" Ino laughed, grinning up at him. "Which took awhile 'cause of this hat so it wasn't nearly so cute during that--but I've adapted, totally. How're you?"

[puppy_fair]

"Hatless," Zack replied, grinning faintly. "And really not quite getting the whole point of the hats in the first place, but at least this island has been colorful all month. I liked the candy more, though."

... Even if he might have munched the point of his sword off that one day with the candy canes. It had been totally worth it.

[intraspective]

"There's some fat guy who gives presents to people," she said, with the air of one who was definitely confused by that. "And he wears hats like this. So they're sort of a symbol, I think? The candy is awesome, though. All the mints and chocolates!"

[puppy_fair]

"With all the chocolate and cookies and marzipan and stuff, it's really no wonder that guy is so fat," Zack mused, pursing his lips thoughtfully before just shrugging it off. "I got stuck with those curly-toed shoes that one day. That was kind of weird."

... But jingly and distracting, so he hadn't minded all that much.

[intraspective]

"I didn't get those," she said, flopping down without asking at one of the tables. "Lucky me. I don't like weird things on my feet."

She wore sandals ninety-five percent of the time after all. "And, totally, I'm not sure how he doesn't have a heart attack or anything--sooo not healthy at all."

[puppy_fair]

"Maybe he just stuffs a pillow down his shirt and doesn't actually eat all of that candy, himself? He probably eats, like, tofu or something, instead."

A few of the dishes looked shocked and appalled at that suggestion, nearby.

[intraspective]

Ino wrinkled her nose.

"Why would you want to eat tofu when there's far tastier things?" Ino wondered. "Though I suppose tofu could be done well, I bet Liir would know."

[puppy_fair]

Holiday tofu! It would be all the rage!

"Liir would be the one to ask about that, totally. And... Well, I mean, if you're going to be handing out all of those presents all over the place, it just makes sense to eat healthy, right? You'd never make it otherwise."

Zack would be shocked and appalled to learn about that whole 'leaving out milk and cookies for Santa' thing, perhaps.

[intraspective]

Ino didn't actually know that bit of it, so they could totally be horrified together if they ever learnt it.

"He does have the reindeer to pull him around though," she said thoughtfully. "But I guess even still that'd be a lot of work..."

[puppy_fair]

"If hitching up a reindeer is anything like hitching up a chocobo, it probably would be," Zack decided. He'd seen a handful of chocobo in his day, but they always struck him as the sort of animal that would be a lot of work to actually properly keep.

... He'd probably also be appalled at the thought of the fat guy using elves as slave labor.