"More like Sardine's restaurant." Zane quipped in his mind, looking up at the name plate of the fine establishment as he sat on a bench opposite of it. "You're going to use that dumb pun as a title for something at some point, aren't you?"

"Yup." Zane crossed his legs as he put his hands behind his head, slouching back a little bit too much as he reclined in the surprisingly comfortable park bench. His attire was a bit different than usual. Zane would usually wear clothing that was very over the top in every way possible. Coats that were way too big, armor that was way too shiny, extravagant headgear. Today Zane was wearing something much more casual, no different than what he would see any average man walking down the streets of Hargeon wear. He even picked a dark blue for his choice of shirt, a color that was extremely subtle. Usually he'd be trying to go with something that stuck out much more, like a bright red or neon green. Beelzebub was especially glad for this change as he didn't much enjoy seeing the average passerby glance at Zane as though he was a greenscreen who had gotten legs and decided to walk around town.

There was definitely one change in Zane's attire that stuck out the most to Beelzebub though - he didn't wear his 'signature' eyepatch. "Finally done with your pirating days?" Beelzebub sarcastically suggested. Zane chuckled a little bit out loud as a couple of nearby kids gave him a weird look for laughing at seemingly thin air. "I'll be back out there with Edward Teach, Charles Vane and the rest of them soon enough. I simply find it exhausting to keep up with my constant god-tier levels of fashion. Sometimes I need to catch my breath and take it simple for a day or two." Beelzebub immediately doubted Zane. That was definitely NOT the reason for this abrupt change.

Zane was out here waiting for Atani, a girl he had managed to sell some allegedly ancient book to the other day. Zane had proposed the two meet here to exchange the money for the book - the problem was that Zane was stupid enough to give her the book early. Beelzebub figured it was highly unlikely for the girl to show up tonight. Who would want to spend more than the bare amount of time minimal with Zane? 99.99% of people would definitely be sane enough to take the book and keep their money. When Zane first revealed this to Beelzebub the demon was furious. The two talked it over for a couple of hours and Zane eventually persuaded Beelzebub into a deal of sorts. If the 0.1% chance that Atani came back was true Zane and Beelzebub could continue on as normal. And if Atani didn't show up? Beelzebub would use his influence over Zane to maim him. Zane usually didn't take Beelzebub's threats very seriously, but this time it felt different. He had never seen the Lord of the Flies that angry before.

Still, Zane didn't seem awfully concerned about Beelzebub's potential punishment right now. He closed his eyes and hummed happily to himself on the bench. Zane had legitimate faith in Atani in this instance. He just had to wait for her to show up. Hopefully soon. Zane quite liked the idea of having both his arms intact.

The noise of Atani's voice caused Zane's eyes to slowly open, his head tilting in her general direction. "Looks like you get to keep your arm for now, Zane. Just make sure to get that money." With that Beelzebub's presence faded away for the time being. Zane felt a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders. As much as he would've liked to pretend he was being nonchalant he was definitely at least some small level of freaked out at the possibility. Thankfully he wouldn't have to think about that for a while.

Standing up from the park bench, Zane smiled as he walked slowly towards Atani, greeting her. "Glad to see you made it instead of running for the hills with the book. Not that I ever doubted you, of course." Zane was glad trusting her paid off too: not only did he get to keep his arm but he got to prove Beelzebub wrong as well. Two birds with one elf-shaped stone. Speaking of elf-shaped stones, Atani seemed to have dressed up too. Zane's outfit looked awfully plain in comparison, though he supposed that was what he was going for. Zane's eyes hovered over her dress, quite impressed by how nice it looked. It reminded him a lot of the stuff his mother would have in her wardrobe back in Baska. Perhaps it was a common preference among elf women? Or just a coincidence. Zane's eyes moved back up towards her face though stopped for a 5-second break around the collarbone area before moving back up to her eyes.

"Impressive." Zane said, quickly realizing that he should probably further explain. "The Blue Pegasus tattoo, I mean. I know it's quite an amazing guild - I've met a number of people from there before." It was probably quite clear that Zane's words were a half-lie. He certainly did notice her tattoo and did genuinely think that her being in the guild was impressive, but it wasn't all. No matter. Zane turned to face his head towards Sardine - ahem, Sardina Restaurant. "I talked with the staff this morning, got a nice table reserved and everything. They know me here, you see. I errr, may have given them a good business opportunity in the past." Zane had been here when he first arrived in Hargeon and had ordered literally everything on the menu. Beelzebub often insisted that to be greedy was to have everything, and that everything included food. Zane had bought so much food that day to the point where people from the streets were coming inside solely to see how crazy he was. Free advertising, in a way.

Zane held out his hand towards Atani. "Well, let's be on our way." Zane had a feeling she'd take it considering she did the same yesterday, but he'd lead her on into the place no matter if she took it or not. The place was only mildly busy tonight, perhaps because of the day of the week. The Sardine - ahem, Sardina's mildly busy was more like very busy for any other restaurant however. It was arguably the most famous place to eat in Fiore after all. The noise of chatter throughout the walls instantly filled up Zane's ears, though the way the building was set up managed to make it sound more like background noise if anything else. As the two approached the podium a server greeted Zane. "Ah! It's Crazy Zane!" The server exclaimed, a reference to the nickname customers had given him the other week. Zane quickly made some hand gestures to see if the server could cut it out. "Ah... I see. I'll take you to the table you wanted right away, Sane Zane."

Zane and Atani were led to the table, Zane's face already a bit red. He certainly hope he didn't have to explain any of that to the girl. It could make for an interesting story, but.... Zane didn't exactly think that his date would be very flattered about hearing how he ordered an entire menu of food at once. The part in which he nearly died eating it wasn't exactly great either. "I'll be back in a few minutes." The server stated, walking off to another part of the restaurant to continue his duties. The table Zane picked was slightly further away from the rest of the place, the background chatter being slightly quieter here than it was elsewhere. Zane had tried to get the VIP rooms but the restaurant didn't like him quite enough to let him have it. This was the best they could give him. At least there was a very nice aquarium near the table.

"Ignore the part where they called me crazy Zane." Zane requested, though quickly realized the error in saying that. "Oh. I guess mentioning it doesn't help, huh?" Nervously chuckling, Zane pulled out his chair and sat in it as he wondered if he would be doing better with Beelzebub around. Perhaps there was some value in having a peanut gallery - or perhaps he had just grown so used to the demon's comments that doing some things without them felt weird. "You ever been here before?" He asked, wondering if Atani had stopped by here yet. He couldn't blame her if she didn't - without a special reservation like Zane's the line to get in was pretty horrible. Disneyland level, even.

"Now now, don't sell yourself short!" Zane said in response to her rather modest assessment of herself, though he could see how that was the case. Back when Zane was in Fairy Tail he could only hold a sword somewhat decently and yet they let him in without a problem. Was Blue Pegasus the same? From what Zane had heard they were all about fashion and looks. Hmm... maybe Zane would join... no, no. Zane couldn't betray Odin like that. He just had to make Eternal Nightmare be even more fashionable and even more attractive than Blue Pegasus. Perhaps he should invite Atani... then again, it was best he didn't invite his date to join a guild run by a skeleton man who Zane was pretty sure had killed thousands.

Here the two sat at their table, Zane already having taken the menu into his hands. It's not like he really needed to either. He already knew everything they served at this restaurant. He'd eaten it all. Zane was rather surprised he didn't get PTSD by just coming into the place. "Everything is good." Zane would plainly say, though he quickly realized that would be too vague an answer for her - even if he was telling the truth. "Err, I really like the gumbo. The seared salmon is amazing too." Phew. Zane couldn't help but feel that much of tonight would be spent trying to recover from his bad lines anywhere between 5 to 10 seconds from making them.

Zane already had an idea of what he was planning to get himself. The server would most likely take at least 4 or 5 minutes to get back. Zane figured it was a good idea to get some sort of discussion going within that time. It felt a bit different having a discussion with Atani though. Yesterday he had spoken to her in a much more genuine way than he usually did. He liked doing that. Yet here he was trying to think over all of his words to an insane degree again. Maybe this was for the best though. Maybe he was better off doing these long stretches of thinking. Or perhaps it really was a safer bet to just speak out loud. Or maybe he should just stop thinking to himself and go for it. He should just say something already. Maybe he wou "Did you make any progress on that book?" Zane asked, something he was immediately curious about as soon as he opened his mouth with the intention of saying whatever. He put down the menu and rested it on the table as he spoke. "I'm pretty excited to see if you do manage to find anything of note in there. I mean, you probably will. The question is just how noteworthy of note is. The elven guy I first heard about that thing from mentioned that lords of towns and other people of power like that were kinda interested in books from whatever language that happens to be." Zane remembered how he tried to go to the local lord yesterday to do the same thing, chuckling to himself a little as he remembered the guards pushing him outside. "Tried selling it to the mayor of Hargeon. His guards didn't even let me see him - it seems my eyepatch was a little too pirate for their taste. Kinda glad they did throw me out though - I definitely got something more - and a lot better - our of this exchange than a bunch of jewels."

"Hmmm." Zane thought to himself, placing one of his elbows on the table as his hand went right for his chin, stroking it lightly in an attempt to appear more intelligent. "I suppose they're pretty obscure. I've only ever seen a book with characters of that fashion twice in my life after all. The one I gave you definitely isn't the same book as the one that other guy had, but the font is so unique it's pretty easy to tell they're part of the same kinda set." Zane thought as much at the very least. He had taken a look at some other libraries he'd visited around Fiore in the past to see if there were any books that were similar to that man's. None, at least until now. It was somewhat reasonable for that neighborhood library staff to have just thrown the thing out. They most likely had never seen anything like it. Thank god Zane went and buried through garbage. A fair deal of history could've been lost forever if not for that. Guess dumpster diving isn't such a bad thing after all, huh?

Zane couldn't help but smile a bit at Atani's giggle. He was glad she found him amusing. In a good way, hopefully. Knowing Zane's luck there was a decent chance that wasn't exactly the case... Zane started to think a little bit too much about what the girl was probably thinking about right now, his mind going off on what was undoubtedly a long inner monologue that would normally be about half the length of this post. Atani kept him on his feet with more questions thankfully. "The elven guy... hmm..." Zane tried to rack his brain a bit. Did he know much about the man? He couldn't exactly put his finger on it... "All I can remember is that he wanted to sell it to the local lord of Baska. I guess he also was a bit more dignified in the way he carried himself. You kn-" Zane's recollections were interrupted by the waiter coming back, a small notepad in his hands. "So what can I get you two?"

Zane looked towards the waiter with a bit of an annoyed expression. This guy was worse than Beelzebub when it came to interrupting interesting conversations! Sighing, Zane pointed down at his menu. "I'll have the gumbo. And I think she was quite interested in the salmon, right?" Zane asked, bringing his eyes up towards Atani to confirm that she was in fact going to get the salmon in the end of it all. He figured he'd let her take dealing with the waiter from here. Zane already knew exactly what he wanted. There wasn't really much room for imagining what would and wouldn't be good after all - he had already tried everything on the menu.

Once the waiter finished with their order Zane would try his best to get back on topic, sitting up straight in his chair and looking directly towards Atani once again. "Where was I? Ah, right. The way he seemed. As I said, he would carry..." Wait a moment. Zane looked at Atani more intensely. He remembered there was something familiar about her the other day, something he remembered from years ago. What was it he was recalling just now? "Carry. Cerry? Cerri? Wait... Kerii? That's your name, isn't it?"

The memories all started coming back to Zane as though he was Light upon re-obtaining the Death Note. Actually, wait. It wasn't quite that intense. The two had only spent one afternoon together with each other years ago but Zane was never one to forget a pretty face... most of the time, anyways. A smile came upon on his own face, lighting it up instantly. "Oh wow! It's been a while. We met at that uhhh, Orchidia shopping mall I think! A couple years back. You were just as bus- err, as beautiful back then as well." Zane remarked, his eyes soon correcting themselves to focus moreso on her face as he tried to recover from the second time he focused on the wrong thing tonight. "But for real though, how have you been? Oh, and why did you start going by Atani? Or is it a surname like Zane?" If that was the case Zane would most likely be pretty excited - the idea of knowing another person who for some reason never used their first name would bring him great joy - though mostly through affirming he wasn't COMPLETELY odd.

Zane's theory didn't seem to be shared by Atani, a frown coming upon his face as he realized there was a decent chance he was in the wrong here. And here he was thinking he had managed to solve some grand mystery! "Ah, I see..." He commented with a slightly dissapointed tone in his voice, his eyes still fixated on her face as he noted the crazy amount of similarities between her and Kerii. Zane did suppose that there was a chance he just didn't remember Kerii's face all that well... Atani's tone seemed to be rather genuine as well, though Zane wasn't exactly the greatest at telling apart truth from lie either way. "I guess my memory must be playing tricks on me. That being said, I don't think Kerii is that weird of a name for an elf. I mean, my parent named me Ch-"

Zane stopped himself. Everytime he had told this story it had ended with whoever he said it to giving him a serious look of doubt. He remembered that when he told Kaiser he used to be an elf she had thought it to be some joke he had come up with. Probably best not to make his date think he was crazy. "Christian, though I suppose I'm not an elf anyways, haha..." Zane reached for his water, gulping it down as he absorbed how awkward his last line was. Now that he thought about it, Christian was a pretty weird name for an elf. And Zane was a pretty weird name for an elven family. Perhaps he was simply born into a bloodline of oddballs. Resting his now empty glass back down on the table, Zane let out a huge post-water sigh as he caught his breath. "It does give me an interesting question to ask though."

The waiter placed the food on their table silently this time, his sudden presence shocking Zane just a little bit. He did prefer it to him randomly interrupting to be fair, though a little bit of warning would be ideal. "Thanks." Zane softly said, the waiter having placed Zane's soup after resting Atani's salmon in front of her. He quietly left, perhaps having sensed Zane's frustration with the way he interrupted earlier. Taking the spoon for his soup in his hands, Zane decided to ask his question before eating. "You came from the place where a lot of elves live, right? What exactly is that place like...?" Zane's tone near the end showed a bit of melancholy. He had always felt a little bit disconnected from other elves during most of his life. He grew up in Baska. He had never been to a place where there would be more elves than humans. He sort of always wished he could go there, but he had a feeling that now that he was a human he wouldn't have quite the same experience.

Zane briefly became concerned when he saw the way Atani moved her eyebrow. Oh god. Would she start asking him about his little slip up? Thankfully she didn't mention it. Perhaps Zane was lucky for the fact that he already accidentally let things out several times tonight - there was a good chance his date was simply accustomed to that by now. Instead her words managed to give Zane a better understanding of why exactly he would've been given such a human name. Zane did suppose that his mother might've mentioned once or twice that his family tree had been in Baska for a few generations. Perhaps the name Zane itself only dated back a decade or two.

Zane's soup-filled spoon went to his mouth, eating a bit of his meal as he listened to Atani's explanation. About the land of the elves. There was certainly a somewhat different type of interest in his eyes now, quite unique compared to the ones he had shown towards Atani before. His eyes weren't those of a salesman trying to charge a girl an absurd price for a book, nor were they of a pervert looking at his date a little bit more than he should. His eyes were moreso like a child's now, filled with an extraordinary sense of wonder. They definitely stuck out on him as well. If Zane had still been an elf right now they would've blended in with the rest of his very youthful appearance quite nicely, but as a human they certainly contrasted with his more adult features. "A big castle?" Zane asked, quickly swallowing what soup was in his mouth so he could barrage Atani with questions.

"Like, how big? Crocus big? And is it more of the wide kinda big or the tall kinda big? Do they have a lot of treasure there?" The last question certainly showed how much Beelzebub had managed to be a bad influence on Zane over the last year or so. "Oh, and what about the queen? Is she hot? Err, dignified? Does she have a solid grip on the economy? What's the tax rate like?" Zane didn't really have much of an interest in their economy, but it definitely made for a good distraction from his early question. Zane took another big spoon of his gumbo, putting it in his mouth as he eagerly awaited Atani's answers. There was definitely something much more pure about him in this moment, perhaps due to his childlike sense of wonder being temporarily ignited. The elven city of Athalran sure sounded exciting... perhaps he'd go there and steal stuff with Beelzebub sometime.

"A tree but oversized?" Zane asked, sounding a lot harder to understand with a mouth full of Gumbo. The conversation had got him into a good enough mood to not care about how his date would feel about him speaking while eating. "Sho like... really oversized then?" Zane asked, having a hard time imagining any tree as a castle. Perhaps she meant like, the tree the size of a mountain? But could that kind of thing really exist? The idea was fascinating to say the very least.

Zane gobbled up more of his gumbo as he listened to Atani's explanation on how each elf usually had a trade. Didn't seem much different than life back home at Baska if Zane were to be perfectly honest. "My trade was a cook at one point." He stated, his mouth free of gumbo for the first time in a while. "I could probably make food just as good as that salmon you're having if I put my heart into it. Err, don't tell the chefs I said that though." Zane's cooking expertise was so high that he could probably guess 99% of the recipe correctly. That was what he'd like to think he could do anyways - how cool would it be if he really could, right? It would probably be something that would really impress someone on a date. Too bad he was far too absorbed in the last few spoonfuls of his gumbo to utilize it here.

A bit of time passed and the two got to eat their meals, the waiter eventually inquiring with Zane as to his payment. Zane figured it was best that he be a gentleman and pay for the two of them, though no doubt Beelzebub would comment that he shouldn't of if the demon was currently present. Zane had to admit that being away Beelzebub was a bit of a magical experience. It was kind of like Beelzebub was... his wife. Huh. Now that Zane though about it... wait, no. This train of thought was too weird, even for him! Shuddering a bit to himself, Zane stood up from his chair as he pushed it back into the table. "That was pretty great. Even better than the last time I was here." Zane failed to mention that was because he didn't have to eat a superhuman amount of food this time.

It was around the start of the evening now. The weather in Hargeon was great enough to warrant it being still fairly warm out. The sun seemed as though it would shine for at least a few more hours. Why let it end here? "Let's go to the beach." Zane thought. Zane also said it out loud, a worrying sign that one day his crazy inner monologues would end up simply being monologues. "Sounds pretty fun, right? It's still warm out, but not warm enough to get a sunburn. It'll be less busy than in the afternoon. I get to see you in a swimsuit. I think there's a tiki bar there as well." Zane's proposal made a lot of sense, but it would probably rest on if Atani felt like spending much more time with him. He had hoped he'd made a good enough impression so far to warrant that... Flashing a smile towards the girl, Zane made sure to look as handsome as he possibly could after eating as much soup as he did. Thankfully none of it got on his clothes. That had unfortunately happened once or twice before. "We'd probably have to go back to our respectives rooms and grab swimwear, but I think it would be worth the time. So? What do you think?""

"Perfect!" Zane exclaimed perhaps slightly louder than he needed to, leading Atani out of the restaurant as the waiter bid them farewell by way of a classy bow. Holding the door open for her, Zane looked out towards the streets with a smile on his face. "I think I can probably meet you by the pier we were at yesterday in about... hmm... 20 minutes, give or take." Zane's tone played it off as though that was how long it would take for him to walk there, but in reality he would most likely have to sprint considering the fact he was staying at an inn pretty far away from the coastline. It was alright though, he felt pretty energetic right now. "Ah, right. One more thing." Assuming that Atani had went through the door by now Zane would close it, his feet bringing him down the small flight of stairs that led up to the restaurant and onto the street. "You can keep the money for the time being. I still expect to get it eventually, don't get me wrong. I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other a bit often so I don't mind letting you hold onto it for a night longer." To tell the truth Zane just didn't feel like lugging that amount of money around Hargeon, especially while he was sprinting.

Zane stepped towards Atani, smiling down at her. "I'll see you at the pier in 20 minutes. With any luck that'll leave us with at least another 2 hours of sunlight." Thinking he should probably end this (temporary) farewell with something sweet, Zane leaned down and planted a kiss on Atani's cheek. "Alright, now time to walk to my room. See ya there!" Zane nonchalantly said, turning around as he walked down the block at a slow pace. After reaching the nearest corner he'd turn onto another street, holding his back against the wall as he looked over towards the block where the restaurant was. After confirming that Atani didn't see him Zane would immediately start sprinting towards his hotel at full speed. Oh god. Why did he lie about it being 20 minutes? It would've been so easy to just say 30!

EXIT