Sorry this one is so late! I spent yesterday drawing instead of writing, and couldn't bring myself to do anything on Monday, I was so tired.

But, I bring you the next prompt. You can pry Shinonome's boring taste in ice cream out of my cold, dead hands. I just think the idea is hilarious, so enjoy.

It was a little off the beaten path, down out of town past the shopping centers and housing areas, but it was always worth the trip. By foot, it was always a long but pleasant two-hour walk. A bit of a day trip, four hours of walking plus however long they ended up staying. By car, it was much shorter, and Eponine gleamed as she dangled keys in front of Shinonome's face.

"You got the car."

"I got the car!" she squealed, pulling the keys into her chest.

"Oh, my god, what organ did you have to promise to get the car!?" he was reaching for her jacket, his own jacket. They were half way to the door before they even realized they were running.

"Nothing! I asked, and Mother gave right in. Apparently, she's got nowhere to be today."

Shinonome yanked open the front door and stood aside. He barely remembered to pull it closed behind him once Eponine, and himself, were out on the front porch. It was still technically summer, but the air was getting colder as fall approached. They took a moment to breathe and put on their jackets.

"Wait," Shinonome stopped before they both swan dived off the steps.

"What?"

"Should we get Kanna? Maybe stop by—"

"No, no, no," Eponine grabbed him by the hand and dragged him off the stoop. They walked along the stone path, out to the driveway. Her hand was sweaty. Excited.

"They don't get to come. No more double dates!"

Shinonome laughed, "Alright, alright."

It dawned on him a moment later, after he had mistakenly gone to the passenger side of the car, that Eponine had said 'double date'. No more of them, sure, but it was the 'date' part that had him paused.

"Wait, date?!"

"Ah—too late," Eponine smirked, disappearing into the driver's seat. "You shan't be a chivalrous knight today, no, sir!"

Shinonome pulled himself next and couldn't help the laugh that escaped. They were on the road moments later, the radio blasting some popular hit neither of them had ever really cared to hear before. But it was catchy, a nice tune for their mini road trip.

When they arrived, Eponine took little care for her parking job, then jumped out before Shinonome could try to recover from his incident. Eponine was insistent on making sure he wasn't about to drop into formal date mode. Not that it wasn't cute, but sometimes things needed to be casual.

"Here we are," Eponine beamed, arms folded across her chest.

Off the beaten path, a bit far out of town. The walk was only two hours because you could skip through the yards, and Eponine knew all the best shortcuts. With the car, it had taken nearly half an hour, but they were finally standing in the little, beaten parking lot of the best ice cream parlor in town. Out of town. Close enough.

"Shall we go, Milady?" Shinonome teased. There was a willful smirk on his face as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder before they walked in. Alright, so maybe formalities weren't a terrible thing.

"The worst part about ice cream," Eponine began with a narrow glance, "is picking between the bowl and the cone. The bowl has more ice cream, but the cone is edible."

"That's why waffle bowls were invented, dear," Shinonome reminded, leaving Eponine to look like he'd just said the most offensive thing in the world as they approached the counter.

"Hello, what can I get for you today?" the server boy smiled as he walked up behind the counter.

"I'll take two—no, three scoops. Feeling a bit crazy today," Shinonome laughed to himself. "Two vanilla and one cookie dough, with sprinkles."

"You're so boring," Eponine droned, crashing her head into his shoulder. But, the boy whipped it right up and stuck a spoon into the side of the mound.

"A waffle cone for the lady," Shinonome began again, and she huffed. "two scoops of the chocolate peanut butter deluxe, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles. But the rainbow kind."

"Thank you," she muttered, watching as her order was thrown together. They always got the same thing, and it was a miracle that they couldn't come often enough for the staff to know who they were. That would just be embarrassing and a total waste of money—but Shinonome dug out his wallet before Eponine could even register that their order was finished. He paid for them both, then ushered Eponine out towards a little table in the corner. It was near the window, just in the path of the sun. At least they could feel like they were eating ice cream during the hot months instead of two weeks until fall and rain.

"I don't even believe in waffle bowls," Eponine made her point before licking a long strip up the side of her ice cream. To catch the falling whipped cream.

"They're real, I promise. Look," he pointed over to the counter.

Eponine's eyes trailed along, following his finger. Sure enough, she saw waffle in the shape of bowls. But it didn't convince her.

"Seems fake," she replied, and let her eyes wander.

Shinonome started to go on about something else, about how it's hard to assume something is fake when it's sitting right in front of her eyes. Or maybe that she should just give into this new technology of a waffle bowl and try it. It was a cone, essentially, just bigger and could fit more ice cream. It wasn't all that new, either, but Eponine was lost before he'd even begun.

She was watching as the server boy, Jason or Jackson or Matthew, something—she hadn't read his nametag, was talking to what appeared to be the manager. He was young, tussled blond hair, but still the manager. And they were laughing. The server boy was smiling wide, and his big blue eyes were positively gleaming at something the manager had said.

"Praising him for a job well done…" Eponine muttered to herself. Shinonome stopped talking when he heard it. He stared at her, then followed her gaze back to the counter.

"Eponine, oh my god," he groaned in return.

"I bet they're…." she trailed off, something or other that Shinonome couldn't hear, or understand. But her eyes were lighting up. She continued to lick at her ice cream, but obviously lost in another world. She imagined they'd come in together, and probably worked the same shift. The one boy was the manager, of course, he made the schedules. He'd probably been scheduling them to work the same time for months before he told the server how he felt. Yes. And then was pleasantly surprised to find the server felt the same, and now they came to work together. Maybe even carpooled. Eponine was positively drooling at the thought of what they did when they disappeared into the back room, leaving the counter empty for a moment.

"—dripping," Eponine was brought back to the real world when she felt Shinonome's finger on her face.

"What," she blinked.

"Your ice cream is dripping," he wiped at some of the chocolate smeared on her lips, and she jolted.

"Oh—Oh!" Eponine made quick work of the melted ice cream along the side of the cone, her hand, and refocused just in time to watch Shinonome lick the ice cream off his finger. The same melted ice cream that had been on her face.

"That is so disgustingly cliché," she complained, but couldn't deny her own smile or reddened face.

"What can I say? I watch a lot of movies," he shrugged, smirking, and went back to spooning his own ice cream into his mouth. It was more like shoveling, but he made it look good.

"You don't even like chocolate."

"Not true. I just can't deny an old classic like vanilla," he glanced over at her, a gentle smile on his face now. She was still red, like normal, and licking attentively at her ice cream. She'd just about eaten all the whipped cream.

"Vanilla is boring. Vanilla is vanilla," she pretended to croak, and nudged her cone into her nose. She laughed, Shinonome laughed with her. He leaned across the table, for something a little less cliché. It didn't matter, as they were the only two in the parlor. It was still early in the day, and not very hot. The two employees hadn't returned either, so he took a bold move to lick the stray cream off the tip of her nose.

"Shinonome!" Eponine nearly shrieked, but kept her voice down. She didn't want to attract attention, after all, but her entire face turned tomato in an instant. She sunk down in her side of the booth, hiding her head in her free hand.

"Still cliché?"

"Disgusting, disgusting," she muttered, and whined, but couldn't keep her position long before she had to straighten to eat her ice cream.

"Come on now," he finished up the last bit of his bowl, scrapping out what had melted at the bottom.

"Okay, but weird and embarrassing and oh, my god, what if someone had seen," her head hit the back of the booth, and Shinonome couldn't help but laugh.

"No one's even here. Your newest fantasy is still hiding in the back somewhere."

Eponine smiled, "It has been awhile—"

"Nope, no, not listening to whatever R rated nonsense is going on in your head."

"Aw, but, come on, Shinonome! And it's not even R its M—"

"Nope."

"Shinonome—"

"Waffle bowls, okay, let's go try one and—"

"Okay, okay, you win!" she laughed.

She finished up her ice cream, and they stuck around a little longer just to talk. More people eventually showed up, and that's why they decided that their stay was over. Too much talking, too many people who could look at them, and Eponine hated that. When they got back out to the car, Shinonome made sure to open Eponine's door for her, even if she was driving. It was to prove a point, or something. But, in the end, he sat in the passenger seat with a prideful grin on his face. Another date where he'd managed to keep attention almost entirely on him. Successful, if he could say so, but he always made sure to nudge Eponine on the way home. She should write her story down.

I am down for supportive Shinonome, okay like. Maybe he doesn't always want to hear, but I'll be dammed if he doesn't support her little thing.