fandomtownies | Cafe Fina, Sunday

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Cafe Fina, Sunday

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.]

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Jennifer entered work and looked at the special.

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

"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.

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

"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.'

"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.

"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?"

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

"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."

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

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."

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

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.

"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.

Zack shrugged and nodded.

"Sure I am. Unless I get a mission or something comes up, I mean. It's not my holiday, you know?" Gaia... wasn't terribly huge on holidays, it seemed. There just wasn't a hell of a lot to celebrate, he supposed.

"Shucks," Jennifer said. "I'd have loved to give you your first Christmas, but... I'll be in California then." She reached over the table to try and hold Zack's hand. "Maybe we can do something before I leave?"

His own hand reached across the table to take hers, and he offered her a small smile.

"Of course we can. Did you have anything in mind, at all?"

"Well, maybe just a little gift exchange. And watch ~~meta~~ 'It's a Wonderful Life'. That's a Christmas staple."

Edited 2009-12-13 17:09 (UTC)

"It is?" Zack kind of blinked and headtilted, thinking that one over. And then he shrugged it off and grinned a bit more. "Okay, it's a staple. But what is it?"

"Oh, it's a movie," Jennifer said. "About a guy who wonders about why he goes on living, but an angel shows him how much the world would suck without him."

There was the slightest hint of... something off, on Zack's face for a moment. A twitch of discomfort, maybe. It faded quickly enough. He was hell-bent on smiling.

"An angel, huh?" A pause. "Wings and all?"

People weren't meant to have wings.

Edited 2009-12-13 17:25 (UTC)

"No wings," Jennifer said. But she realized she needed to change the subject. "But most of the point of Christmas is spending it with the people you care about."

"Oh..." And there Zack went, smiling at the tabletop. "It sounds like a nice sort of holiday."

"It's the best."

And Jennifer would maintain this attitude, even after Santa Claus sexually harasses her in the future.

"So, when's a good time for you? After finals?"

"After finals sounds good," Zack agreed, nodding again. "My last class is Deadpool's, on Thursday. I'm pretty much free, after that." A pause. "You?"

"Mine's on Friday with Mr. Halpert," Jennifer said. "So... Friday night?"

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Cafe Fina, Sunday

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