Note: This is set post Hajimari, but only has spoilers up to Zero.

Estelle had left her hair down, and it was taking a surprising amount of self-control not to reach across the table and run his fingers through it.

"You know, I'm not normally a bread fiend, but it's just so good when they serve it warm like this." Estelle commented, grinning as she tore off another piece of the roll.

"Mmm, definitely." Joshua replied distractedly, still a bit preoccupied as the mental image progressed from running his hands through her unbound locks to curling his fingers into the short, soft hairs at the base of Estelle's scalp and pulling her close.

If he got stuck looking in her eyes again they were going to be here all night.

Domenic's was a nicer restaurant than they generally frequented, especially while on the road. Luckily, he hadn't been questioned too intensely about the fancier than normal décor. Estelle took great pride in her ability to take down monsters three times her size, but she also really enjoyed getting dolled up and breaking out a nice dress every once in a while.

So far, it seemed that she hadn't caught on. But he wouldn't put anything past the world's number one Joshua watcher, and he wanted to do this right. Their dating hadn't exactly kicked off with a conventional confession, and that was entirely his fault. So for this next big relationship milestone, he just wanted to give her this one mostly perfect moment. No drugs, no cults, no monsters. And doing this right meant not tipping her off that anything was weird or different about today.

It was going to be a surprise right up until the moment he proposed.

"Did you hear that Aeolia got to give a speech about her research in that conference thingy? I couldn't understand a single word, but Renne said it was interesting." Estelle commented, breaking him out of his planning.

"You were subject 23 in that paper, right?"

"Wait, what?"

"Estelle, you signed the release form and everything." He wasn't exactly surprised she'd forgotten, but sometimes he worried that one day she'd sign away something important and not remember.

"I…vaguely remember doing something like that." She smiled nervously, giving him the world's worst poker face.

"You definitely don't remember." He intoned. Estelle, trying to feign innocence, was looking everywhere except his face.

There was a pause as she scarfed down more bread. Joshua wondered why he found it so charming.

A restaurant proposal was more public than he wanted, but there was a secluded patio area that they would walk through on the way out, picturesque with an ivy wrapped fence and a small fountain. The chilly March air meant that there weren't any patrons seated outside. He had planned to pop the question then, but his anxiety was slowly building and they hadn't even made it to the starters yet.

"Hah, okay, so then you explain it to me. What was I a lab rat for?" Estelle finally conceded.

Joshua mentally weighed the pros and cons of explaining very interesting science against maintaining the romantic mood that he'd tried so hard to cultivate. On one hand, Estelle still thought the orbal net could be used to catch fish. On the other, for their second anniversary he'd returned home with flowers and she'd ignored them in favor of the grip tape he'd happened to pick up earlier in the day. Estelle saw romance where she wanted, trying to direct its trajectory was generally a lost cause. And so science won.

"She was looking at whether there was any difference in recovery for wounds treated by orbment in a hospital setting against wounds treated with the same quartz in the field." He gave her a flat look. "You were a good case study because it turns out there are very few people who charge full speed into shark monsters more than once." The paper had actually spurred a lot of debate about whether medical professionals needed to be trained to attune better with water and wind based orbments.

"You know, I think I remember that bit. They stole my prized salmon! And then the second time was an extermination request."

"And both times were a level 4 bite wound to the left forearm." He recited helpfully from memory, before popping a piece of bread into his mouth too. Mmm, it was good.

"Goshdarned things kept on biting me right when I went to give them a good smack." She mumbled. Joshua hadn't been there for either fight, but could still picture the scenario clearly regardless.

"I'm curious what you expected them to do if you didn't think they were going to bite you." He teased lightly.

But, uncharacteristically, Estelle didn't rise to the bait. She didn't even meet his gaze. Her eyes looked down to the tablecloth, then back behind her for a moment, then to the tablecloth once more.

"I think you were an outlier with a better field result. It was probably because Kloe did your care for that one." He followed up when no retort seemed forthcoming. Maybe he had gone a bit too far with the teasing? Alarms were starting to go off in his head. Embarrassing Estelle to the point of silence had not been in his carefully concocted plans for the night.

"Yup, she's the best…" Estelle trailed off. Her eyes darted behind her one more time.

Their waiter appeared out of nowhere to refill their water glasses, cutting short any apology Joshua was about to make. The moment stretched out into eternity as he could only review and overanalyze every little interaction they'd had for the last 30 minutes. Had he complimented her dress enough? Too much? Maybe she was feeling objectified? He hadn't meant to insult her combat prowess, but that would be uncharacteristically self conscious of her, it seemed off. Was she feeling ok? The cut on her leg the other day had been pretty deep, maybe all this fancy dress-up had been pushing it too much?

"Alright buster, the jig is up. I know why we're out here." Joshua jolted in his seat at the words and found that the waiter was gone, his internal hand-wringing having gone on a bit too long. Estelle looked amused, maybe even a little smug, as she pointed her fork at him in accusation.

The building anxiety over his imagined slights was quickly replaced by the dread of being found out. Ah, maybe that was why she had suddenly gone so quiet. He had no clue what could have tipped his hand, but Estelle had been talking to Lloyd a lot recently, maybe the ability to pick out a motive from seemingly unrelated circumstances had rubbed off on her. This wasn't really how he'd planned the night to go.

He realized he was taking too long to respond. Playing dumb it was.

"Because I wanted a nice romantic night out with my girlfriend?" Well, even if the surprise was ruined, he would give her the satisfaction of being able to drag it out of him. At least he could enjoy the site of her being so pleased with herself. It would be a fun story she could tell when recounting their engagement.

The ratio of smug to sultry in Estelle's smile shifted rapidly as she put down her fork and leaned across the suddenly very small table. Her hand reached out to cup his cheek lightly, and Joshua barely registered when he shifted forward to meet her half way in a mirror of her movement.

Some small, distant part of him noted that this was very forward for Estelle in such a public setting. The rest of him was much more preoccupied with the way that her lips had parted slightly, invitingly. The restaurant faded away into muted background noise, he could smell her shampoo now. His hand moved towards the back of her neck of its own accord, and just like that his earlier fantasy was a hair's width away from becoming real.

But at the last moment she feinted left.

"You know, I'm not that bad at acting. You could've told me this was a stakeout." She murmured, breath tickling his ear in a very pleasant manner.

"Wha…"

"Two o'clock, red suit. That's Don Moguo, isn't it?" She sounded very pleased with herself, but Joshua's heart sank. Of course work would follow them here. He pulled back slowly, trying to keep his blush to a minimum while still maintaining the façade of a couple incapable of keeping their affection private. Subtly, he shot a glance across the dining room at the table in question.

"So it is." It looked like Moguo had applied a fake beard. But once he knew to look for it, Joshua could spot the edge of a very unique tattoo curling around the man's wrist when he moved his arm to eat. Even worse, he could pick out the faint outline of an orbal gun hidden against the other man's side underneath his jacket.

A gun. Ah.

He swallowed dryly. There was a man with a deadly weapon not five arge away from Estelle and he hadn't noticed. A man who probably knew their faces, and who had proven that he had zero qualms starting a firefight in public. His eyes darted around the room, searching for the hit squad he was sure was about to materialize. This was a sick joke. He was a joke. How could he have missed something so basic? How could he ever think that he deserved –

Estelle squeezed his hand. It tugged him back from the spiral of self-recrimination. He focused on that.

Her grin was starting to give way to confusion. Outwardly, he was sure that nothing in his expression had changed, but he was probably taking a bit too long to respond. And, well, she wasn't the world's number one Joshua watcher for nothing.

"I…I didn't actually see him over there." It was fine. He was fine. Estelle was fine. She could protect herself. In fact, she'd just outdone him up at doing exactly that. They were fine. He took a breath.

"Uh huh."

"No, really. You saw him first." She still looked unconvinced, and a bit unsure about what exactly was happening. She had most likely spotted Moguo during the discussion of Aeolia's paper. What Joshua thought had been embarrassment or distraction had just been her sneakily trying to get a few more peeks in to be sure of his identity. And being so focused on Estelle and the rare treat of her in a dress, he'd completely missed it.

He took another slow breath, and could feel the last bits of his anger and guilt slip away. With a smile, Joshua decided to make the best of his terrible oversight.

"I was too distracted by how beautiful you are tonight to notice." He murmured, lacing their fingers together.

Well, his plans were shot, but he did at least get the pleasure of watching Estelle turn beet red. She took a minute struggling to form words. Ironic, considering the little stunt she'd just pulled to whisper in his ear.

"Here I am completely overwhelmed by your radiance, and I find out you're ogling other men on date night." He chided jokingly. "I don't know if my heart will ever recover."

"Now you sound like Olivier." She finally mumbled, squeezing his hand back in what he assumed was some combination of embarrassment and appreciation of the compliment.

He traced patterns on her hand with his thumb, waiting for her to regain her composure. It would have been nice to just enjoy the moment, and he was a little miffed at having to split his attention by covertly keeping tabs on the Don. Finally, Estelle withdrew her hand and began rearranging the silverware with purpose. Quickly, he realized it was a mockup of the restaurant and the possible exits.

"Alright, let's figure out how to tail him."

Well, on one hand, he was incredibly proud that she hadn't jumped straight to standing on the table and declaring her intention to arrest the Don in front of the entire restaurant.

He was deeply tempted to say no. The night was still salvageable. Renne could handle this in her sleep. All it would take was a quick text on the ARCUS, she'd come running, and the two of them could go back off the clock. At Renne's normal speed she could make it from Jenis in less than 20 minutes. The Don was still working on what looked like an appetizer. Plenty of time.

It was a nice fantasy, but he knew that suggesting it was pointless. Estelle smiled at him from across the table, confident and sure. There was no stopping the conviction burning in her eyes. Don Moguo was, relatively speaking, small fry compared to some of the mobsters they'd confronted.

But he was a man driven by nothing but ego and over-inflated self importance, and he thought nothing of the families he'd torn apart or the lives he'd ruined. When faced with that, Estelle would never be content to stand aside for the sake of just having a night off. And despite Joshua's carefully constructed plans, he felt the same. There were people to protect.

He smiled back at her across the table, then offered up the bread basket.

"Better eat up. We'll need the strength if this turns into an all-nighter."

End note: I feel like a grizzled old cop who got pulled out of retirement for one last ride. This game is so good.