Just something I thought about after re-reading the 1700s arc of Baccano! *goes back to imagining Huey and Monica together*
New York, 2011
"...Maiza? Maiza Avarro?"
She was the first to speak, her half empty (or half-full for those optimists) glass clinking gently on the counter as she placed it down. The man seated on her right looked exactly like the Maiza Avarro who had fled Lotto Valentino...300 years ago. Her lips formed the question before her normally rational mind could react.
"How is this po-"
Of course. He had been among the alchemists who fled Lotto Valentino and boarded the Advenna Avis that night. It was only logical that being granted immortality, he would look like he never aged a day even though 300 years had passed. Then again, the same could be said for her. A ghost of a smile appeared on Carla's face as she mentally reprimanded herself for making such a ridiculous error.
The man raised his head, eyes slightly squinted as he gaped and responded with equal confusion.
"...Is that you? Carla Alvarez Santonia?"
"Lady Lucrezia allowed me to drink from the Grand Panacea." spoke Carla in a matter-of-fact tone as she drew her hands underneath her chin.
Maiza nodded with understanding, he hadn't been aware at the time, but in exchange for permission to leave Lotto Valention, Lady Lucrezia De Dormentaire had ordered Huey LaForet and Elmer C. Albatross to provide her with a sample of the Grand Panacea. Carla must have been among the few allowed to partake in the drink.
"You haven't changed at all. Same goes for everyone else." Carla's face softened as she gazed nostalgically at her unchanged reflection in the glass.
"Perhaps, though I can't say the same applies for Huey LaForet. In a way, we all may have changed. Though for the better or worse; I can't say." replied Maiza as his thoughts drifted to Lebreau Fermet Viralesque, a man who they recently learned had been pulling the strings from back then.
"Ooooh! You're such a sweetheart! But I'll have to say no to your request since Carla, a darling she may be, would be terribly mad at me! Oh!"
From the outside area, an extravagant sounding woman began calling for Carla. From the way Carla's facial expression became more stern and her eyes sharpened, Maiza felt it was safe to assume the voice belonged to Lucreiza De Dormentaire. Even immortality had failed to change her frivolous nature.
"Carla dear, where are you?!" whined Lucrezia as her loyal bodyguard and attendant failed to appear.
Draining the last drops of alcohol from her glass, Carla sighed and stood up. Reaching into her the pocket of her neat business-like jacket she withdrew some money and placed it onto the table.
"It's on me, to celebrate us meeting again." insisted Maiza as he withdrew cash from his own pocket and tried to hand it to the bartender. The man simply watched on as the two began to play out a typical first date ritual.
"No. Allow me." Her face betrayed her self-control as her lips twitched into a smile.
"I did promise you, if we were to meet again in the new World; I'd buy you a drink."
It may have been 300 years ago, but she had still remembered. Keeping his gaze fixed onto the polished wooden surface of the counter, Maiza raised a hand and spoke to Carla's receding figure, "See you around, Carla."
This doesn't follow canon since Baccano! 1935 C explicitly mentions the people who drank Lucrezia's share of the Grand Panacea and Carla isn't among them. *dabs eyes* I wanted Maiza and Carla to be together! Even Elmer thought so! (cos he notices she smiles differently around Maiza teehee!)