Day 42, Noon: The Twin Pine Restaurant

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows

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[secret_orchard]

Armand's hands and face were getting numb from the cold, but the rest of him ached slightly from using under-worked muscles. He was glad when TK called a halt to their training, presumably so everyone could eat. Armand didn't really like modern fast food, so he suggested the nicer restaurant and was happy that TK readily agreed. The agreement was so fast Armand wondered if there was another reason the big soldier wanted to avoid the burger restaurant, but he didn't mind. Not at all

[secret_orchard]

"I think it is from Earth, but I cannot be certain of that. Your universe could another place entirely or simply far distant in time one way or another." He took another sip and decided to save the rest for his meal. The hot cup had finished banishing his chill.

"You've had it before then?" he asked.

[loyal_soldier]

"I think there's only a few planets that produce it. It's pretty rare." He took another sip, enjoying it slowly (for once).

"I have. Or at least something that might have been it. Or just supposed to be it. I didn't exactly have any way to tell." It wasn't something he'd really thought about all that much.

[secret_orchard]

"It's from a bean, the cocoa plant." Armand felt proud he remembered that. "I haven't had it often. It's forbiddingly expensive in Europe."

He enjoyed seeing TK savoring the chocolate. Just watching his friend in a happy moment uncurled a tense worried feeling in Armand's own gut. Now he might be able to relax a bit better himself. He leaned his elbows on the table. "I am glad to see you relaxing. You need to get a chance to do that more often. I can't imagine it's good for you to be so tense and ready for attack all the time."

[loyal_soldier]

He hadn't even realized he'd seemed tense. "It's just how things go. I do know how to relax, I just probably don't show it well." Relaxing to him usually meant sleeping, anyway. Or just thinking, when there wasn't anything serious to be thinking about.

[secret_orchard]

"Well, I declare that you must relax some today. I demand it!" He smiled, now realizing that it was okay to do so, and wagged his finger at TK. "It would ease my heart to know that you were able to do so," he explained.

[loyal_soldier]

622 chuckled into his mug of hot chocolate. "Yes sir." He was doing his best, he really was. He didn't want to be tense when he didn't need to be. Hopefully that would become evident as it apparently hadn't been before.

[secret_orchard]

Armand blinked at being called 'sir' and then laughed. "You don't have to be as formal as all that," he murmured, blushing a little. Just tipping his chin lower and sitting back let him hide behind his hair until his cheeks cooled. "Am I not allowed to worry about you as well?"

[loyal_soldier]

"It wasn't said seriously," 622 explained, putting down his mug. "And apparently I'm not very good at getting that across either." He sat back, relaxing just slightly from his normal perfect posture. "You can, I'd just like to be able to assure you that things are fine."

[secret_orchard]

"I do care," Armand insisted. "I don't mean to insult my other friends, but you are my best adult friend. We must never give up on getting out of here and protecting ourselves, but I also think we should live the best we can while we're here." He bit his lip. In some ways, he thought that idea may come across as radical.

[loyal_soldier]

"Sounds like a solid idea to me. I just never had much beyond food and a safe place to sleep to enjoy myself with," sometimes. "So that's the threshold of what I consider 'living well'." Except that also included being surrounded by other troopers and having a clear, known direction beyond a vague overall goal.

[secret_orchard]

Armand leaned against the table again, eyes wide. "Is that all you want then?" He couldn't quite understand that, but he'd never lived what TK had lived. He had to sit back as their food arrived.

[loyal_soldier]

"It's all that I know to want. I know there's other things out there, but I don't know what they are." He then made a valiant attempt to not get completely distracted by the arrival of food. This looked good, and smelled even better. Now if only he could keep himself from downing it all in five minutes...

[secret_orchard]

"Friendship is something people value. Leisure and the pursuits one can have if there is leisure." He studiously cut the steak in half and put part of it to the side until he'd eaten the rest, to save it for TK if he only ate as much as he wanted to eat.

[loyal_soldier]

"I didn't know to look for it. It just happened before because Commander Akobi and I saved each other's lives so many times," 622 said, remembering to swallow what food he had in his mouth before speaking. The stuff tasted just as good as it smelled. Akobi had likely been a lot better at that sort of thing than 622 was. But he tried not to think about that while he was enjoying food, even though he almost wanted to think about it. The Commander was someone who shouldn't be forgotten.

[secret_orchard]

"Do you think my wanting to be your friend takes away from what you had with your commander?" Armand took both his hands from the table and hid them as well as dropped his chin.